THE  INFLUENCE  OF  JOY 


MIND  AND  HEALTH  SERIES 

Edited  by  H.  Addington  Bruce,  A.M. 

'THE 
INFLUENCE  OF  JOY 

BY 

GEORGE  VAN  NESS  DEARBORN 

INSTRUCTOR   IN   PSYCHOLOGY  AND    IN   EDUCATION,    SARGENT 

NORMAL    SCHOOL,    CAMBRIDGE  ;     PSYCHOLOGIST   AND 

PHYSIOLOGIST   TO   THE    FOR8YTH   DENTAL 

INFIRMARY    FOR   CHILDREN, 

BOSTON;  ETC. 


BOSTON 

LITTLE,  BROWN,  AND  COMPANY 
1916 


1916, 
BY  LITTLE,  BROWH,  AHD  COMPANY. 

All  rights  rctenxd 
Published,  May,  1916 


Set  up  and  electrotyped  by  J.  S.  Gushing  Co.,  Norwood,  Ma«.,  U.S  A 
Prewwork  by  S.  J.  Parkhil'  ft  Co.,  Boston,  Maw.,  U.S.A. 


THIS  LITTLE  BOOK 

WITH   WHATEVER  IT  MAY  MEAN 

IS  DEDICATED  TO  MY   WIFE 

DOMINI 


3573 


EDITORIAL  INTRODUCTION 

IN  a  general  way  it  has  long  been 
recognized  that  joy  has  a  stimulat- 
ing, tonic  effect  on  the  human  or- 
ganism. The  so-called  "New  Thought 
Movement",  of  which  so  much  has  been 
heard,  has  as  its  basic  principle  this  revivi- 
fying power  of  joy,  in  contrast  to  the  para- 
lyzing power  of  such  emotional  states  as 
fear,  envy,  worry,  and  anxiety.  "New 
Thought"  literature,  to-day  so  abundant, 
rightly  emphasizes  the  importance  of  joy 
as  an  aid  in  healthy  and  efficient  living, 
and  reinforces  its  insistence  on  this  funda- 
mental truth  by  the  citing  of  numerous 
evidential  instances  from  everyday  observa- 
tion. In  the  main,  however,  the  literature 
of  "New  Thought"  has  generalized  rather 
than  specified  with  regard  to  the  influence 

vii 


EDITORIAL  INTRODUCTION 

of  joy.     It  has  done  this,  not  from  choice, 
but  from  necessity. 

For  it  is  only  of  recent  years  that  science 
has  made  any  exhaustive  use  of  its  marvel- 
ous methods  of  research  to  ascertain  the 
specific  effects  of  joy  and  other  emotions 
on  bodily  states.  The  great  impetus  to 
systematic  investigation  in  this  important 
field  came  from  the  experimental  work  of 
the  late  Professor  Pavlov,  appointed  in 
1891  chief  of  the  then  newly  organized 
Institute  for  Experimental  Medicine  in 
Petrograd.  In  this  institute  Professor 
Pavlov  fitted  up  a  laboratory  specially 
equipped  for  investigation  of  the  processes 
of  digestion,  which,  by  ingenious  devices, 
he  was  able  to  study,  in  the  case  both  of 
animals  and  of  human  beings,  more  thor- 
oughly than  they  had  ever  been  studied 
before.  A  direct  result  of  his  studies,  con- 
tinued through  a  long  term  of  years,  was  an 
increasingly  precise  demonstration  of  the 
manner  in  which  the  digestive  mechanism 
viii 


EDITORIAL  INTRODUCTION 

is  affected  for  good  and  for  evil  by  emo- 
tional conditions. 

Further  than  this,  the  publication  of 
Pavlov's  observations  had  the  consequence 
of  intensifying  scientific  interest  in  the 
general  subject  of  the  physiological  effects 
of  the  emotions.  In  various  countries,  — 
and  not  least  in  the  United  States,  —  able 
scientists  followed  Pavlov's  example.  Some 
studied,  as  he  was  studying,  emotional 
effects  on  the  functioning  of  the  digestive 
organs,  confirming  and  extending  his  find- 
ings. Others  investigated  the  influence  of 
the  emotions  on  the  heart,  arteries,  lungs, 
kidneys,  liver,  etc.  This  work  of  research 
still  is  in  progress,  and  will  long  be  in 
progress,  owing  to  the  vastness  and  com- 
plexity of  its  subject-matter.  But  already 
many  discoveries  have  been  made,  of  far- 
reaching  importance  as  regards  the  conser- 
vation and  restoration  of  health. 

With  scarcely  an  exception,  unfortu- 
nately, these  scientific  investigators  of  the 

ix 


EDITORIAL  INTRODUCTION 

emotions  have  reported  the  results  of  their 
labors  in  writings  —  magazine  articles, 
pamphlets,  books  —  of  too  technical  a  char- 
acter to  be  serviceable  to  the  general  public. 
Often,  too,  their  reports  have  appeared  in 
periodicals  not  accessible  to  the  majority 
even  of  medical  men,  a  class  particularly 
interested  in  the  work  done  in  this  field. 
There  is  accordingly  a  real  need  for  a  con- 
venient, compact,  and  authoritative  survey, 
and  this  need  the  present  volume  aims  to 
meet,  constituting  a  handbook  that  will  he 
of  practical  value  to  any  man  sincerely 
desirous  of  enlarging  his  knowledge  of  fun- 
damental principles  in  the  art  of  living. 

The  author  of  this  book,  Professor 
George  Van  N.  Dearborn,  has  the  double 
advantage  of  being  both  a  psychologist 
and  a  physiologist.  He  has  himself  made  a 
special  study  of  the  physiology  of  the  emo- 
tions, his  interest  in  which  dates  from  the 
nineties,  when,  as  a  graduate  student  at 
Harvard  and  Columbia  Universities,  he 


EDITORIAL  INTRODUCTION 

prepared  as  his  thesis  for  the  Ph.D.  degree 
an  essay  on  this  same  subject  of  joy.  He 
has  in  particular  studied  the  influence  of  joy 
on  arterial  pressure,  and  on  "kinesthesia", 
—  the  "feeling  of  movement",  —  the  im- 
portance of  which  from  an  educational  point 
of  view  is  only  now  beginning  to  be  appre- 
ciated. Also  he  has  specially  studied  the 
relation  between  joy  and  creative  efficiency, 
as  the  reader  will  find.  But  in  this  book 
Professor  Dearborn  is  careful  to  subordinate 
his  own  special  researches  and  contribu- 
tions in  the  interest  of  a  well-proportioned, 
comprehensive  survey  of  the  work  done  by 
all  who  have  shared  in  the  task  of  scien- 
tifically studying  the  effects  of  emotional 
states  on  the  organs  and  processes  of  the 
body. 

The  result  is  a  volume  which  should 
exercise  a  marked  influence  for  good.  It 
gives  precisely  the  information  essential  to 
adequate  appreciation  of  what  active  ac- 
ceptance of  the  "gospel  of  joy"  will 

xi 


EDITORIAL  INTRODUCTION 

mean  in  the  way  of  increasing  personal 
health  and  power.  No  man  who  would 
achieve,  no  man  who  would  live  long, 
happily,  and  prosperously,  can  afford  to 
disregard  or  remain  in  ignorance  of  the 
facts  here  set  forth.  And  for  this  reason, 
for  the  sake  of  contributing  directly  to  the 
promoting  of  human  welfare,  it  is  to  be 
hoped  that  Professor  Dearborn's  soundly 
scientific  book  will  have  a  wide  and  care- 
ful reading. 

H.  ADDINGTON  BRUCE. 


XII 


PREFACE 

ONE  of  the  many  unhappy  circum- 
stances of  this  life  of  ours  (which, 
after  all,  numerous  really  intelli- 
gent people  rather  dislike  to  leave)  is  the 
fashion  prevalent  in  superior  circles  of 
deeming  conscious  and  obvious  happiness 
undignified.  This  harsh  but  permeating 
spirit  of  the  old  Bay  Colony  is  not  yet 
wholly  dead  among  us,  although  echo  of  a 
day  when  to  kiss  one's  wife  or  to  smile  on 
the  Sabbath  was  a  fault.  At  its  very  best  it 
is  all,  of  course,  a  part  of  the  sadly  mistaken 
notion  of  Brother  Giles,  for  example,  that 
the  body,  that  miracle ! ,  is  "  a  devil's  knight 
fighting  against  salvation ",  a  prejudice 
which  for  fifteen  centuries  has  kept  the 
fair  appreciation  of  the  body  and  its  vic- 
tories far  below  its  just  valuation  in  the 
xiii 

-  . 


PREFACE 

world's  common  mind.  Joy,  on  the  con- 
trary, is  the  empirical  index  of  the  normal 
activity  of  unified  mind  and  body,  —  the 
life  man  was  meant  to  live,  rational  and 
unafraid. 

And  it  is  not  the  sincere  and  frank  phi- 
losopher, truly  learned  in  things  as  they 
really  are,  and  wise,  who  belittles  the 
adult's  gladness  of  life,  but  the  pretender, 
the  pedant,  whom,  however,  there  are  few  to 
contradict.  To  him  childhood  with  its  pri>- 
tine  gladness,  like  womanhood,  is  at  least 
a  bit  inferior,  and  childhood's  joy  a  thinir 
which  man  and  woman  should  once  for  all 
put  by.  But  the  garrulous  pessimist  is  al- 
most always  a  weakling,  a  dyspeptic,  or  a 
melancholiac ;  and  the  vain  gentleman  too 
dignified  to  smile  frankly,  sometimes  even 
when  alone,  makes  others  laugh  aloud  at 
his  egotism.  God  is  no  dispiriter  of  man; 
and  Nature,  even  at  her  utmost  horrors, 
wears  always  a  compensating  sympathy  to 
him  who  sees  beneath  her  moods  into  the 


XIV 


PREFACE 

glad   reality   of   our   common   but   always 
transcendent  life. 

The  present  volume  is  an  essay  intended 
to  set  forth  some  of  the  hygienic  and 
therapeutic  sanctions  of  organic  happiness. 
Some  of  its  readers  will  find  that  it  sub- 
stantiates their  belief,  already  firm,  in  the 
reality  of  joy's  bodily  influence ;  and  a  few 
of  them  may  be  originally  convinced  of 
it,  those  especially  to  whom  "cold  facts" 
appeal;  while  still  fewer  may  see  in  the 
endeavor  a  slight  but  sincere  contribution 
to  the  science  of  the  relationship  of  mind 
and  body,  the  two  glistening  sides  of  our 
soul's  shield. 

CAMBRIDGE,  MASSACHUSETTS, 
February,  1916. 


XV 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  PAGE 

EDITORIAL  INTRODUCTION    .        .         vii-xii 
PREFACE xiii-xv 


PART  ONE 
THE  POWER  OF  JOY 

I.  AN  OUTLINE  SURVEY     ....  3 

II.  THE  INFLUENCE  ON  NUTRITION     .        .  41 

III.  THE  INFLUENCE  ON  THE  CIRCULATION  82 

IV.  THE    INFLUENCE    ON    THE     NERVOUS 

SYSTEM,  ETC.           .        .        .        .111 
V.    THE  LOVE-LIFE 143 

EPITOME  .        .        .        ...        .        .        .    153 

PART  TWO 
THE  NECESSITY  OF  JOY 

VI.     WORK  AND  PLAY  ....     159 

xvii 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAOI 

VII.    WORRY    AND    THE    GLORY    OF    THK 

WORLD 171 

VIII.    THE  ECONOMICS  OF  HAPPINESS  .        .194 

IX.    PERSONALITY 209 

INDEX 219 


XVlli 


PART  ONE 
THE  POWER  OF  JOY 


THE   INFLUENCE   OF   JOY 

CHAPTER  I 
An  Outline  Survey 

THREE  conceptions  and  their  rela- 
tionships form  the  subject  of  the 
present  volume,  namely,  mind  and 
health  and  joy.  These  we  need  not  at- 
tempt to  define,  not  only  because  they  are 
each  inherently  indefinable  save  in  their 
own  terms,  but  also  for  the  reason  that 
every  possible  reader  knows  in  advance 
more  or  less  exactly  what  they  mean.  It 
will,  however,  be  the  privilege  of  the  book 
to  try  to  make  as  explicit  as  already  it  is 
implicit  the  definition  and  nature  of  joy 
and  happiness,  for  to  do  so  is  to  under- 
stand and  accept  as  real  the  "influence" 

3 


THE    :M<!.:  !  \<  K   or  JOY 

which    will    be    set    forth,    however    f 
mentary    the    result    compared    with    the 
marvelous  entirety  of  the  reality. 

The  conception  "mind"  is  quite  beyond 
definition  in  any  way  acceptable  to  every 
one,  but  to  include  in  its  meaning  that 
relatively  (or  absolutely)  permanent  as- 
pect of  the  actual  individual  which  repre- 
sents the  latter' s  always  unique  reaction 
to  his  environment,  is  to  be  at  least  not 
wholly  wrong.  Whatever  else  one  adds 
to  this  idea  of  mind  the  writer  believes  is 
a  matter  largely  of  temperament  or  of 
the  education  one  has  happened  to  have. 
Perhaps  "the  soul  is  coming  back",  but  it 
is  wiser  to  see  her  always  standing  there, 
behind  the  scenes  at  times,  but  always 
dominant  in  the  philosophy  of  man,  what- 
ever some  of  those  men  may  actually  say! 

In  this  little  book  our  first  search  prop- 
erly is  for  an  understanding  of  emotion; 
and  then  of  gladness,  joy,  and  its  chronic 
state,  "passion"  in  technical  term,  which 

4 


AN  OUTLINE  SURVEY 

we  name  happiness.  If  we  outline  our 
idea  of  emotion,  perhaps  the  aftercoming 
technicalities  will  be  the  better  put  in  place 
and  integrated  into  a  rounded  conception. 

In  this  brief  discussion,  the  term  "  emo- 
tion" will  be  used  as  a  generic  word  with 
much  the  same  implication  as  feeling  when 
employed  as  an  abstract  noun.  On  the 
other  hand,  "an  emotion"  is  a  time  period 
of  psychophysical  experience  with  very  well- 
defined  affective  reactions ;  in  the  same 
sense  "a  feeling"  is  a  mild  emotion,  less 
determinate,  and  with  much  less  obvious 
bodily  activity  concerned.  There  are  fifty 
or  sixty  feelings  readily  called  to  mind,  but 
the  emotions  proper  are  less  than  a  dozen 
in  the  classification  of  James  (which  self- 
analysis  shows  to  be  correct).  None  the 
less  in  common  usage  feeling  and  emo- 
tion are  essentially  synonyms. 

Let  us  first  attempt  to  obtain  a  general, 
even  if  vague,  outline  sketch  of  what  feel- 
ing, in  its  scientific  meaning,  is  like.  Every 

5 


THE  INFLUENCE  OF  JOY 

one  knows  the  mental  phase  of  the  various 
feelings,  and  even  if  he  did  not,  no  one 
could  describe  them  to  him.  Careful  anal- 
ysis, however,  does  make  this  "immediate 
experience"  of  feeling  richer  with  mean- 
ing, although  of  course  the  more  important 
part  of  the  psychology  of  the  emotions 
("affective  psychology")  describes  the 
bodily  aspect  of  this  two-phased  portion 
or  aspect  of  our  life. 

The  term  "feeling"  is  for  psychology  a 
most  unfortunate  one,  because  it  means  so 
many  different  things  that  scientific  pre- 
cision of  expression  is  impossible  unless 
one  deliberately  sets  out  to  state  the 
arbitrary  meanings  he  will  give  the  word; 
indeed  confusion  and  doubts  and  misun- 
derstanding follow  in  the  truly  scholastic 
way.  One  may  feel  with  his  finger  tips, 
may  feel  excited,  or  sleepy,  or  ill,  or  cold ; 
or,  on  the  other  hand,  he  may  feel  sorrow- 
ful, or  frightened,  or  happy,  or  angry. 
The  first  five  meanings  of  the  term  cited 

6 


AN  OUTLINE  SURVEY 

are  but  examples  of  very  many  complex 
sensational  experiences  to  which  the  term 
is  applied;  the  latter,  feeling  happy,  or 
sorrowful,  or  angry,  or  frightened,  are 
usages  of  the  word  which  are  the  most 
exact  scientifically,  and  these  mental  con- 
ditions are  indeed  emotions  when  of  the 
requisite  intensity  and  purity.  Admira- 
tion, or  piety,  or  disgust  are  feelings  in  the 
proper  sense  which  rarely  pass  over  into 
emotions.  Thus  much  in  the  way  of  ter- 
minology, by  means  of  examples. 

We  seek  now  to  review  the  chief  char- 
acteristics of  emotion  proper,  feelings  be- 
ing for  our  purpose  but  mild  and  relatively 
simple  forms  of  emotion;  to  describe  the 
latter,  or  to  analyze  it,  is  therefore  to 
represent  the  former  as  well.  The  emo- 
tions are  feelings  which  are  intense,  tem- 
porary, and  characterized,  each,  by  a  set 
of  obvious  bodily  reactions. 

Every  emotion  involves  a  subject,  the 
person  in  whom  it  takes  place  and  by 

7 


THE  INFLUENCE  OF  JOY 

whom  it  is  immediately  experienced;  and 
an  object,  that  thing  (objective  or  sub- 
jective, "rear*  or  ideal)  which  is  the  oc- 
casion of  the  emotion  at  the  time.  Every 
emotion  has  a  mental  aspect,  which  is  the 
complex  consciousness  during  the  emotion  ; 
and  a  bodily  aspect,  consisting  of  wide- 
spread and  probably  universal  bodily  move- 
ments and  tendencies  to  movement.  Every 
emotion  has  a  sense  of  excitement  (due  to 
the  liveliness  of  the  other  elements) ;  and, 
finally,  there  is  always  in  an  emotion,  al- 
though sometimes  more  or  less  completely 
masked  from  consciousness,  a  tone  either 
pleasant  or  unpleasant. 

Let  us  now  briefly  discuss  such  of  these 
emotional  components  as  are  most  im- 
portant practically,  namely,  the  mental 
experience,  the  bodily  movements,  and 
the  affective  tone. 

The  psychical  side  or  aspect  of  an  emo- 
tion is  of  course  what  one  feels  while  ex- 
periencing the  emotion;  to  describe  it  is 

8 


AN  OUTLINE  SURVEY 

as  impossible  as  it  is  unnecessary,  for  every 
reader  knows  the  experience  as  well  as  any 
one.  The  differences  between  an  emotion 
of  fear  and  the  consciousness  and  sub- 
consciousness  in  an  emotion  of  anger  or  of 
surprise  are  perfectly  well  marked  in  every 
memory  —  one  is  never  in  doubt  whether 
he  is  afraid  or  sorrowful.  To  account  for 
these  differences  is,  however,  a  different 
matter,  and  to  do  so  one  must  refer  to  the 
next  element  requiring  explanation,  namely, 
the  bodily  aspect  of  emotion. 

This  is  what  used  to  be  called  the  ex- 
pression of  the  emotion,  a  term  no  longer 
exact,  according  to  the  physiological  theory 
of  emotion,  because  this  bodily  phase  is 
itself  an  essential  part  of  the  process; 
one  does  not  think  nowadays  of  a  feeling 
or  emotion  as  merely  mental  experience; 
this  is  now  known  to  be  only  half,  one  way 
of  looking  at  it,  one  of  two  aspects,  where 
a  dual  mechanism  is  involved.  It  is  very 
unsatisfactory  to  attempt  to  describe  in  a 

9 


THE  INFLUENCE  OF  JOY 

little  space  what  the  bodily  side  of  even  a 
single  emotion  is  like,  and  to  convey  a 
notion  of  emotional  "expression"  in  gen- 
eral is  out  of  the  question,  each  emotion 
being  an  hereditary  physiological  law  unto 
itself.  But,  roughly,  the  physical  side  of 
emotion  consists  of  movements  and  of 
tendencies  to  movement  ("strains")  in 
many  different  parts  of  the  body,  and  most 
probably  in  its  every  nook  and  corner. 
There  are  contractions  of  muscles  more  or 
less  complete  and  more  or  less  universal 
over  and  throughout  the  body  —  of  the 
muscular  fibers  in  the  walls  of  the  almost 
omnipresent  arteries  and  everywhere  in 
the  numerous  glands,  as  well  as  of  the 
voluntary  muscles  of  the  face  and  limbs. 
There  is  increase  or  decrease  in  glandular 
activity  all  through  the  body.  Since  we 
have  learned,  recently,  of  the  close  mutual 
dependence  between  the  autonomic  nerves 
and  some  of  the  glandular  secretions,  es- 
pecially adrenin  (epinephrin),  iodothyrin, 

10 


AN  OUTLINE  SURVEY 

and  pituitrin,  this  last  set  of  bodily  reac- 
tions has  taken  on  a  new  interest.  And 
Cannon's  demonstration,1  that  in  the  stren- 
uous emotions  the  blood's  sugar-fuel  is 
increased,  adds  another  link,  a  dynamic 
one,  to  the  scientific  emotional  chain. 

No  summary  of  the  nature  and 
phenomena  of  emotion  could  possibly  be 
adequate  to-day  without  some  statements 
at  least  regarding  these  two  chief  factors, 
the  muscular  and  the  glandular,  of  periods 
of  true  feeling — as  indeed  the  James-Lange- 
Sergi  theory  of  emotion  plainly  suggests. 
The  recent  work  of  the  physiologists  and  of 
the  neurologists  certainly  tends  to  support 
this  theory,  however  little  these  new 
workers  in  gland  and  muscle  and  nerve 
appreciate  the  fact.  Let  us  glance,  then, 
though  as  briefly  as  is  allowable,  at  these 
two  chief  contributions  of  the  bodily  phase 


*W.  B.  Cannon,  "Bodily  Changes  in  Pain,  Hunger,  Fear, 
and  Rage  ",  New  York  and  London,  1915,  pp.  32  ff.  (Researches 
both  interesting  and  important.) 

11 


THE   INFLl  1  A(  K   OF   JOY 

of  emotion,  namely,  at  the  nerve  influence 
from  the  glands  and  at  that  from  the 
muscles. 

In  a  book  intended  for  popular  use,  it 
is  not  expedient  to  deal  with  the  complex- 
ities of  the  visceral  and  circulatory  influ- 
ences in  emotion  save  in  the  way  of  assur- 
ing the  reader  of  their  supremacy  shared 
with  the  movement -impulses  from  the 
nerves  of  the  muscles  proper.  This  brevity 
is  regrettable  in  a  degree,  and  especially 
because  just  at  present  the  occasional 
reader  who  would  know  more  about  tin  M 
very  interesting  things  is  compelled  to 
search  out  many  scattered  articles  and 
monographs  to  find  that  which  he  seeks. 

Gland  tissue  and  that  kind  of  muscle 
tissue  which  serves  the  vegetative  or  sup- 
porting business  of  the  body  (technically 
termed  "smooth"  or  vegetative  muscle. 
are  everywhere,  or  pretty  nearly  so, 
throughout  the  organism  inside  and  out. 
Both  gland  tissue  and  this  form  of  muscle 

12 


AN  OUTLINE  SURVEY 

are  abundant,  for  example,  in  the  skin,  in 
the  digestive  apparatus,  in  "the  circula- 
tion ",  in  the  breathing  mechanism,  and  in 
the  apparatus  intended  for  reproducing 
life. 

The  part  of  the  nervous  system  whose 
duty  it  is  to  correlate  all  of  these  living 
instruments  (glands  and  muscle)  with  each 
other,  with  the  remainder  of  the  body,  and 
with  its  external  surroundings,  we  would 
expect  to  be  complex.  Such  indeed  is 
the  case,  and  only  now,  within  the  last  few 
years,  have  we  begun  to  understand  in  any 
adequate  degree  the  structure  and  mode 
of  action  of  this  part  of  the  nervous  sys- 
tem, which  is  technically  termed  nowadays 
the  autonomic  system,  after  Langley's  sug- 
gestion.1 This  mistress  of  the  vegetative 
life  consists  of  numerous  elaborate  knots 
of  nerve  units  called  ganglia  and  of  mil- 
lions of  nerve  paths  connecting  them  every- 

1  J.  N.  Langley,  "Schaefer's  Text  Book  of  Physiology",  vol. 
II,  1900,  etc.  And  "  Zentralblatt  fur  Physiologic  ",  27,  149 ;  1913. 

13 


THE   INFLUENCE  OF  JOY 

where,  directly  or  otherwise,  with  every 
part  of  the  body.  Their  connection  with 
the  spinal  cord,  that  great,  complex,  as- 
sembling plant  or  switchboard  and  con- 
ducting cable  both  at  once,  is  especially 
complete.  By  this  means,  on  one  hand, 
the  brain  is  put  into  intimate  relation 
with  the  invigorating  and  supporting  as- 
pects of  the  body,  and  on  the  other,  the 
individual  man  or  woman  is  given  control 
over  kis  organism  to  a  very  considerable 
f.rtcnt,  indeed  to  an  extent  by  no  means 
realized  as  yet  either  by  science  or,  with  a 
few  exceptions,  by  the  individual.  It  is 
through  this  intimate,  reciprocal  depend- 
ence and  control  that  the  brain  cortex 
(representative  of  the  humanity  and  cul- 
ture of  the  individual)  and  the  vegetative 
nervous  system  ("autonomic")  respectively 
stand  for  restraint  and  for  actuation,  the 
latter  urging  by  its  "instinctive"  mode  of 
action  the  emotional  life  which  it  is  the 
privilege  of  the  former,  the  brain  cortex, 

14 


AN  OUTLINE  SURVEY 

either  to  hinder,  if  it  be  harmful,  or  to 
further,  if  it  be  of  use. 

L.  F.  Barker,  in  August,  1913,  stated l  in 
the  three  following  sentences  the  attitude 
of  the  most  advanced  physiologists  con- 
cerning the  affective  relations  of  the 
autonomic : 

"In  how  far  those  sudden  and  violent 
excitations  of  the  autonomic  nervous  sys- 
tem which  accompany  strong  emotions 
are  due  to  the  innervation  of  the  glands  of 
internal  secretion,  and  in  how  far  they 
depend  on  direct  neural  conduction  from 
the  brain,  we  are  as  yet  but  ill-informed. 
I  need  only  remind  you  of  the  vasodila- 
tation  of  the  face  in  the  blush  of  shame, 
of  the  stimulation  of  the  lachrymal  glands 
which  yields  the  tears  of  sorrow,  of  the 
palpitation  of  the  heart  in  joy,  of  the 
stimulation  of  the  sudoriparous  glands 

1  L.  F.  Barker,  "  The  Clinical  Significance  of  the  Autonomic 
Nerves  Supplying  the  Viscera,  and  Their  Relations  to  the  Glands 
of  the  Internal  Secretions,"  Canadian  Medical  Association  Journal, 
August,  1913. 

15 


THE  INFLUENCE  OF  JOY 

which  precedes  the  sweat  of  anxiety,  of 
the  stimulation  of  the  vasoconstrictors, 
the  pupil  dilators,  and  the  pilomotors  in 
the  pallor,  mydriasis,  and  goose  skin  of 
fright,  to  illustrate  some  of  these  violent 
autonomic  excitations.  While  we  do  not 
yet  understand  the  exact  mechanisms  of 
association  among  the  activities  of  the 
cerebrum,  the  endocrine  glands,  and  the 
reciprocally  antairnnUiic  antonomic  do- 
mains and  their  end-organs,  we  can  begin 
to  see  the  paths  which  must  be  followed  in 
order  that  more  exact  knowledge  may  l>e 
gained." 

Since  then,  as  we  shall  learn,  these 
paths  have  been  well  trod,  and  many 
rich  landscapes  of  psychologic  insight  are 
seen  for  the  first  time,  landscapes,  however, 
which  are,  in  the  absence  of  photographs, 
so  to  say,  far  too  complex  to  be  described 
at  present. 

There  are  two  matters  recently  discov- 
ered in  these  physiological  and  neurologic  a  1 
16 


AN  OUTLINE  SURVEY 

travels  that  must  at  least  be  mentioned. 
One  of  these  is  the  demonstration  that 
secretions  play  an  almost  surprising  part 
both  in  the  action  of  the  vegetative  ner- 
vous system  (at  least)  and  therefore  in 
the  inner vation  of  the  feelings.  The  other 
discovery  in  these  internal  jungles  of  life 
is  the  functional  opposition  that  has  been 
shown  to  obtain  within  the  autonomic 
system  itself.  It  is  reasonable  to  expect 
that  this  contrariety  has  some  kind  of 
basic  representation  in  the  emotional  as- 
pect of  behavior.  If  this  be  so,  however, 
and  it  certainly  is  a  priori  likely,  the  mode 
of  the  relation  is  not  yet  even  in  sight  on 
the  psychological  horizon. 

The  nerve-influences  directly  connected 
with  the  action  and  active  restraint  of  the 
muscle  tissue  that  is  under  the  personal  will's 
control  are  even  shorter  in  their  description.1 


1  G.  V.  N.  Dearborn,  "A  Contribution  to  the  Physiology  of 
Kinesthesia",  Journal  fiir  Psychologic  und  Neurologic,  XX,  1,  u. 
2;  January,  1913.  Illstd.  S.  62-73. 

17 


THE   INFLUENCE  OF  JOY 

Just  as,  psychologically  considered, 
vision  is  undoubtedly  the  "queen"  of  the 
senses,  so  physiologically  the  processes 
inherently  relating  to  movement,  posture, 
weight,  spatiality,  etc.,  are  assuredly  the 
most  important.  In  the  universal  inte- 
gration of  sensations,  vision  in  a  way  may 
even  be  considered  the  mental  counter- 
part of  the  bodily  kinesthesia,  as  a  little 
thought  readily  shows.  Only  now  are  ed- 
ucators beginning  to  realize  the  indispen- 
sable usefulness  always  and  everywhere  of 
kinesthesia,  the  "feelings  of  movement." 
Kinesthesia,  however,  is  about  to  come  into 
its  own  as  the  primary  and  essential  sense. 
Without  it,  co-ordinated  and  .nl.iptrd 
bodily  movement  and  strain,  connected  with 
every  kind  of  mental  process,  is  inconceiv- 
able, for  the  (psycho)motor  centers  in  the 
brain  have  no  known  clairvoyant  powers, 
and  therefore  their  function  of  carefully  co- 
ordinating the  distant  muscles,  e.g.  of  foot 
or  hand,  is  entirely  dependent  on  their 

18 


AN  OUTLINE  SURVEY 

continual  reception  of  detailed  informa- 
tion as  to  the  relative  tonal  and  contrac- 
tional  status  of  all  the  active  parts  to  one 
another.  Simple  as  this  idea  is,  its  im- 
mense practical  importance  has  as  yet 
hardly  begun  to  seep  into  the  minds  of 
educators. 

If  we  thus  or  similarly  understand  the 
nature  and  use  of  the  joint-muscle-tendon- 
skin-bone  sense,  we  all  shall  be  ready  to 
admit  that  the  parts  of  the  body  not 
innervated  or  (by  our  tentative  hypothesis) 
mentalized,  so  to  say,  by  the  autonomic 
nervous  system,  are  pretty  thoroughly  rep- 
resented motorially  by  the  other  system, 
by  this,  in  short,  the  king  of  the  senses. 
Its  precise  relation  to  emotion  will  appear 
later  when  other  preliminaries  have  been 
set  forth.  At  present,  let  us  be  content 
to  understand  that  the  very  material  es- 
sence of  the  body-life  is  motion  and  that 
every  organism  has  throughout  it  adequate 
mechanism  by  which  each  bit  of  every 

19 


THE  INFLUENCE  OF  JOY 

molar  movement  and  every  strain  and  stress 
and  shear  may  be  indicated  to  the  con- 
trolling nerve  centers.  Thus  all  these 
adaptive  reactions  are  made  useful  to  the 
individual  by  their  work  of  furnishing 
active  means  by  which  his  inherent  per- 
sonality may  be  advanced  by  an  ever  bet- 
ter adaptation  to  an  environment,  material 
and  spiritual,  ever  more  complex  and 
therefore  always  new.  Emotion  has  a 
large  part  in  this  essential  adaptation  for 
evolution  and  personal  development;  in- 
deed it  seems  sometimes  in  all  of  us  and 
always  in  some  of  us  to  provide  the  dom- 
inant dynamic  incentive  of  our  lives. 

Kinesthesia  thus  appears^  as  the  second 
of  two  factors  making  the  mental  basi^  <>l 
emotion,  the  other  subconscious  and  more 
"theoretic",  because,  so  far  as  actual  ex- 
perience goes,  less  obvious.  The  "muscle- 
joint"  sensations  immediately  represent 
activity,  bodily  movement,  and  by  their 
group-uniqueness  in  eaeh  feeling  and  emo- 
20 


AN  OUTLINE  SURVEY 

tion  provide  the  variety  of  affective  expe- 
riences with  which  every  one  is  familiar. 
On  no  other  suggested  basis  is  their  respec- 
tive uniqueness  understandable. 

As  we  have  already  seen  in  the  brief 
account  of  the  sense  of  movement,  actual 
experimental  evidence  implies  a  duality  of 
kinesthesia:  an  inhibitory  and  voluntary 
phase,  and  another  phase,  representative 
of  impulsive  bodily  motions  in  both  the 
vegetative  and  the  voluntary  organisms. 
In  this  duality  of  impulse  and  its  control, 
the  humanity  of  man  seems  to  be  repre- 
sented as  well  as  several  significant  lesser 
matters  of  scientific  interest — not  new,  but 
forgotten.  Kinesthesia  may  be  considered 
the  dynamic  index  of  organism  always  in 
motion  in  relation  to  mind,  and  in  emotion 
this  principle  is  more  obvious  than  else- 
where. 

Whatever  be  the  technical  interests  and 
difficulties  in  our  present  relative  ignorance 
of  the  nervous  system,  the  practical  thera- 

21 


THE  INFLUENCE  OF  JOY 

peutic  concerns  are  based,  as  we  shall  see 
better  anon,  in  the  dominating  influence 
of  natural  activities  over,  on  one  hand,  the 
emotional  tone,  and,  on  the  other,  I  lie 
roads  to  a  common  goal  of  life  sufficiently 
long.  The  dynamic  index  of  these  is  the 
body's  basis  of  sensation,  subconscious  and 
conscious,  and  we  may  best,  as  heretofore, 
term  it  kinesthesia.  Its  more  immediate 
relations  to  emotions  pleasant  and  un- 
pleasant later  chapters  will  endeavor  to 
suggest,  but  the  temperament  of  the  reader 
alone  will  determine  if  the  attempt  to 
reconcile  a  search  for  mechanistic  explana- 
tions with  a  deep-lying  belief  in  an  Ani- 
mism which,  like  Acadian  affection,  "hopes 
and  endures  and  is  patient,"  succeeds  or 
fails.  By  all  means  let  us  welcome  the 
soul  "returning"  as  Muensterberg  says, 
into  philosophy,  but  let  us  meanwhile  try 
to  understand  how  the  soul  is  related  to 
the  rest  of  our  experience,  scientific  as  \vell 
as  personal. 

22 


AN  OUTLINE  SURVEY 

Autonomic  and  cerebrospinal  influences 
both,  then,  are  concerned  in  the  bodily 
phase  of  emotion.  What  this  statement 
means  in  the  complexity  of  bodily  effects 
produced,  one  familiar  with  anatomy  and 
physiology  can  readily  understand.  The 
total  effect  is  perhaps  nothing  short  of 
change  in  every  organ  and  in  every  part  of 
almost  every  tissue  of  the  body,  through 
the  complete  unification  made  possible  by 
the  nervous  system.  The  indefinite  num- 
ber of  combinations  possible  between  these 
physiological  elements  explains  the  enor- 
mous complexity  of  the  emotional  expres- 
sions and  their  immense  variety,  both  in 
kind  and  in  degree  or  intensity.  These 
bodily  changes  constitute  the  physical 
"  basis  ",  so  called,  of  emotional  phenomena. 

The  sense  of  pleasantness  or  of  unpleas- 
antness, the  affective  tone  of  an  emotion, 
needs  a  word  or  two  of  discussion,  because 
practically  it  may  be  the  dominating  ele- 
ment of  feeling,  just  as  theoretically  it  may 
23 


THE  INFLUENCE  OF  JOY 

be  wanting  in  consciousness  because  for  some 
reason  masked  or  balanced  in  certain  \vcll- 
defined  affective  experiences.  Into  the  psy- 
chology of  pleasure  ami  pain,  of  plra<ant- 
ness  and  of  unpleasantness  especially,  we  will 
not  here  go ;  and  there  is  no  need  of  doing 
so,  the  important  fact  being  that  usually 
an  emotion  or  a  feeling  is  either  distinctly 
agreeable  or  disagreeable,  and  at  times 
almost  painful  or  pleasurable,  although 
rarely  the  affective  tone  cannot  be  *\\<- 
tinguished,  because  there  is  none.  Who, 
for  example,  will  say  whether  an  average 
emotion  of  surprise  or  of  anger  is  pleasant 
or  unpleasant?  In  the  emotion  of  delimit, 
on  the  other  hand,  or  of  fear,  the  affective 
tone  is  very  prominent,  in  the  former 
instance  very  pica-ant  in  its  character, 
and  in  the  latter  of  a  nature  to  be  ea>ily 
confused  with  pain. 

Such  being  a  rather   technical   idea   of 
emotion,  let  us  glance  again  briefly  at  some 
of    its    more    general    properties.      In     the 
24 


AN  OUTLINE  SURVEY 

first  place,  feeling  (and  here  emotion  is  in- 
cluded) is  that  sort  of  consciousness,  that 
aspect  of  the  mental  process,  which  is 
closest  to  the  soul  or  ego  of  the  individual. 
It  is,  one  might  claim,  the  most  personal 
mode  of  consciousness,  that  in  which  the 
subject  takes  most  interest.  To  account 
for  this,  consider  its  inclusion,  usually,  of 
an  affective  tone,  of  a  sense  or  experience 
akin  to  pleasure  or  to  pain.  Of  all  bio- 
logical principles,  scarcely  any  is  more 
universal  than  that  every  animal,  be  it 
worm  or  man,  seeks  satisfactions  and 
avoids  dissatisfactions,  seeks  pleasantness 
and  shuns  unpleasantness,  strives  after 
pleasure  and  evades  pain  in  all  its  normal 
inclinations.  When  it  does  not  do  so,  the 
presumption  is  warranted  that  the  animal, 
almost  always  man,  has  gotten  beyond  the 
biological  into  the  range  of  satisfactions 
with  which  we  here  have  no  concern.  It 
is,  then,  because  affective  states  more  than 
other  sorts  of  consciousness  have  this  tone  of 
25 


THE  INFLUENCE  OF  JOY 

pleasantness,  or  of  unpleasantness  usually, 
that  these  feelings  and  emotions  control 
the  conduct  of  the  individual  more  than 
do  other  sorts  of  experience.  One  vividly 
remembers  the  emotion  that  gnawed  his 
soul,  and  it  seems  a  criterion,  the  occasion, 
or  else  the  deterrent,  of  future  action. 
Again,  the  emotions,  theoretically  as  well 
as  introspectively,  are  largely  interwoven 
with  the  instincts,  many  emotions  being, 
one  might  usefully  say,  minor  instincts, 
more  temporary  as  a  rule,  but  otherwise 
of  the  same  general  nature,  although,  of 
course,  different  in  particulars. 

One  can  speak  of  the  feelings  and  emo- 
tions, in  an  important  sense,  as  the  re- 
actions of  the  individual  personality  at 
the  same  time  to  its  environment  and 
to  the  cenesthetic  fabric  of  sensations, 
unique  for  each  feeling  and  emotion  and 
so  characteristic  for  each,  both  in  ex- 
perience within  and  in  manifest  bodily 
movement. 

26 


AN  OUTLINE  SURVEY 

Feeling  then  is  the  aspect  of  mind  (will- 
ing and  thinking  being  the  other  two 
aspects)  that  is  closest  to  the  very  soul, 
so  to  say,  of  the  individual.  The  reason 
for  this  lies,  it  is  clear,  in  the  nature  of 
pleasantness  and  of  unpleasantness,  the 
"affective  tone",  characteristic  of  all  feel- 
ing. Here  (be  it  repeated  for  emphasis) 
is  the  fundamental  fact  of  life;  every 
sentient  being  seems  to  seek  inevitably 
his  possible  maximum  of  satisfaction.  It 
often  is  not  pleasure,  and  sometimes  is  not 
pleasantness,  but  it  always  is,  apparently, 
the  logical  limit  of  this  kind  of  experience, 
a  limit  always  to  be  expressed  as  satisfac- 
tion. In  emotion  and  affective  experience 
generally,  this  phase  of  experience  is  most 
obvious  and  most  characteristic.  The 
therapeutic  and  physiologic  value  of  this 
general  state  of  mind,  this  inevitable  and 
universal  desiring,  in  the  long  tun  are  quite 
beyond  easy  appreciation.  But  the  reason 
lies  in  the  universal  stimulation,  perhaps, 
27 


Tin;  IM  u  ENCE  OF  .JOY 

which  feeling  of  the  pleasant  sort  produces 
in  the  organism  as  an  uniquely  delicate 
and  sensitive  "machine." 

As  we  have  noted  above,  a  chief  <  liai- 
acteristic  of  emotional  events  is  the  uni- 
versality of  their  physical  influence,  that 
is  in  the  body.  Whether  consciously 
not,  an  emotion  unrestrained  concerns 
more  or  less  every  part  of  the  frame,  thus 
getting  the  richness  which  is  characteristic 
of  the  typical  emotions.  The  supposition 
explains,  too,  the  uniquely  complex  "ex- 
pressions of  emotion  ",  their  great  variety, 
and  consequently  their  interest  for  the 
observer.  Thus  the  emotions,  by  means 
of  their  bodily  side  (as  in  all  other  phases 
of  mind),  become  modes  of  social  com- 
munication of  great  importance,  second  in 
value  only  to  written  or  vocal  speech. 
Much  care  and  pain-  are  devoted  to  teach- 
ing the  child  the  various  proper  usages  of 
speech,  while  the  "language  of  the  emo- 
tions" is  relegated  to  poetry  and  to  scnti- 
28 


AN  OUTLINE  SURVEY 

mental  relations.  It  is  our  intention  only 
to  suggest  what  a  large,  practical,  even 
monetary,  worth  an  acquaintance  with 
emotional  expression  may  sometimes  have, 
thereby  speaking  a  word  for  the  worth  of 
knowledge  other  than  that  of  facts  and 
abstract  theories. 

It  has  been  already  suggested  that  the 
two  aspects  of  emotion,  the  mental  and 
the  bodily,  are  parallel  to  each  other,  more 
or  less,  and  wholly  and  mutually  dependent. 
The  details  of  this  correspondence  (really, 
we  may  presume,  an  interrelation)  are  as 
yet  vague,  but  the  general  fact  seems  clear 
and  certain  enough.  As  a  consequence  of 
this  relation,  one  sees  that  bodily  "ex- 
pression" accompanies  the  mental  experi- 
ence; one  feels  an  emotion,  and  simul- 
taneously his  body  takes  the  attitude,  or 
does  the  things,  or  exhibits  the  expression 
peculiar  to  that  degree  of  that  particular 
sort  of  emotion.  For  example,  seeing  a 
mad  dog  rushing  about  a  street,  one  feels 
29 


THE  INFLUENCE  OF  JOY 

frightened,  looks  frightened,  and  runs  away. 
On  the  other  hand,  if  one  artificially  imi- 
tate the  "expression"  of  an  emotion  (pro- 
vided it  be  done  with  the  requisite  accuracy 
and  vigor  sufficient  to  raise  the  needful 
excitement  in  the  mind),  the  corresponding 
feelings  are  experienced  also.  (James.) 
Thus  most  actors  who  produce  truly  i 
imitations  of  nature,  that  is,  the  really 
great  performers,  thoroughly  feel,  almost 
always,  the  emotions  they  pretend  to  feel 
on  the  stage.  Imagine  Mrs.  Fiske  or 
Eleonora  Duse  playing  one  of  their  re- 
markable parts  without  feeling,  to  tluir 
soul's  depths,  what  they  make  us  feel. 
The  pedagogical  and  therapeutic  appli- 
cation of  this  principle  (that,  taking  an 
attitude  with  the  natural  vigor  and  pre- 
cision, the  mental  side  accompanies,  and 
vice  versa)  is  common  knowledge,  and  in 
the  schoolroom  gets  its  recognition  in  the 
universal  attention  given  erect  positions, 
"shoulders  back,"  "heads  up,"  etc.  This 
30 


AN  OUTLINE  SURVEY 

is  not  a  matter  only  of  proper  physical 
development,  for  it  directly  influences 
beneficially  the  mental  attitude  of  the  pupil 
toward  things  in  general,  and  toward  him- 
self as  person  and  as  agent  in  particular. 
Gladness  is  expansive  and  extensor  in 
its  bodily  expression,  while  sorrow  and 
self-abasement  are  contracted  and  stoop- 
ing. Joy,  too,  is  active  and  progressive, 
strenuous  (sthenic  is  the  technical  term), 
while  grief  and  pain,  its  opposite,  are  quiet 
and  obstructive  of  real  living.  Thus  phys- 
ical activity  stimulates  mental  activity, 
more  or  less,  when  not  overviolent,  and 
develops  latent  mental  vigor.  It  is  im- 
portant, then,  to  insist  that  the  young 
student  shall  conform  to  the  rules  of  bod- 
ily posture  which  experience  has  taught  give 
the  greatest  physical  and  mental  freedom. 
To  hold  one's  head  up,  other  things  being 
equal,  is,  we  may  be  sure,  to  hold  one's 
moral  and  perhaps  mental  standard  higher, 
too.  This  principle  is  basal  in  medicine, 
31 


THE   INFLUENCE  OF  JOY 

Turn  this  matter  quite  about,  and  one 
also  sees  relations  of  value  everywhere. 
Just  as  mental  attitude  accompanies  phys- 
ical attitude  when  part  of  an  emotion,  so 
of  course  bodily  expression,  in  the  techni- 
cal sense,  is  concomitant  with  the  mental 
side  of  affective  states.  Good  humor 
means  physical  vigor  and  liveliness  and 
useful  bodily  functioning;  therefore  good 
humor  has  a  very  practical  value.  The 
best  educators,  like  the  best  popular  lec- 
turers, appreciate  this  relation  and  put  it 
continually  into  practice.  The  object  of 
the  lecturer  in  this  is  to  give  his  auditors 
pleasure,  for  which  they  have  paid  him  in 
advance.  The  object  of  the  educator 
should  be  to  interest  his  students  and  so 
inevitably  to  draw  their  attention  and 
secure  vigorous  effort  to  learn.  Whatever 
gives  one  pleasure  (ethically,  satisfaction) 
interests  above  all  else.  In  a  like,  and 
more  important,  way,  the  object  of  the 
physician  should  be  to  take  ad  van 

32 


AN  OUTLINE  SURVEY 

of  the  invigorating  influences  of  pleasant 
emotion  in  every  possible  instance  and  at 
every  possible  moment  when  it  is  not 
contr  aindicated . 

Once  more,  An  emotion  is  a  system  or 
set  of  reactions  which  tend  to  occur  on 
the  presentation  to  the  individual  of  the 
proper  stimuli  under  the  necessary  sub- 
jective conditions.  In  the  young  child 
and  in  the  savage,  as  well  as  in  the  brute 
in  his  natural  state,  one  sees  these 
emotional  reactions  very  generally  carried 
out  in  their  theoretical  form.  In  civilized 
communities  among  adults,  we  observe, 
on  the  contrary,  comparatively  little  of 
affective  expressions ;  in  some  nationalities, 
however,  more  of  it  than  in  others.  The 
tendencies  which  have  been  at  work  thus 
to  modify  and  mollify  the  natural  emotions 
of  men  are  various.  They,  however,  all 
tend  to  the  same  end,  namely,  toward  re- 
pression or  inhibition  of  the  bodily  side  of 
the  emotional  dual  process,  and  regularly, 


THE  INFLUENCE  OF  JOY 

we  may  suppose,  partly  at  the  expense 
also  of  mental  affective  experience.  This 
inhibition  of  natural  tendencies  or  "expres- 
sions" for  the  benefit  of  other  tendencies 
more  generally  useful,  is  part  of  civiliza- 
tion, a  function  of  every  phase  of  education. 
This  is  indeed  perhaps  the  hardest  prob- 
lem and  certainly  the  most  important  as 
one  starts  out  to  educate  a  child  :  so  to 
interest  him  that  he  will  gradually  learn  to 
control  extraneous  and  especially  affective 
influences,  so  that  he  can  devote  his  atten- 
tion and  energies  to  useful  systems.  In  a 
similar  manner  it  is  becoming  recognized 
as  a  basal  therapeutic  necessity  in  medicine 
to  teach  one's  patients  the  resistless  force 
of  harmful  influences  becoming  habitual, 
and  especially  when  (as  is  usual  rather 
than  unusual)  an  emotional  tone  is  in- 
volved with  its  persuasive  tang  either 
pleasant  or  unpleasant. 

The  educational  element  of  his  obliga- 
tion to  society  the  physician  is  especially 


AN  OUTLINE  SURVEY 

prone  to  forget  or  to  ignore:  he  as  yet 
knows  no  psychology,  save  in  a  few  in- 
stances.1 The  very  least  the  intelligent 
practitioner  can  do,  however,  on  the  sound 
principle  of  noblesse  oblige,  is  to  see  to  it 
that  every  patient  who  can  benefit  thereby 
receives  from  his  entire  environment  the 
curative  influence  of  a  happy,  or  at  least 
pleasant,  emotional  tone.  Modern  psy- 
chology and  physiology  are  now  engaged, 
in  part,  in  making  us  really  understand 
the  scientific  basis  of  this  familiar  old 
idea.  It  is  an  important  phase  of  modern 
therapeutics,  at  whose  foundations  are 
the  theory  and  facts  of  emotion  on  a 
strictly  sound  scientific  basis. 

However  contrary  and  repugnant  the 
fact  may  be  to  certain  traditional  preju- 
dices at  a  time  when  intellectualism  is 
still  dominant,  far  more  of  us  are  more 
habitually  ruled  by  our  feelings  than  by, 

1  G.  V.  N.  Dearborn,  "  Psychology  and  the  Medical  School," 
Science,  N.  S.  XIV,  343,  pp.  129-136,  July  26,  1901. 

35 


THE  INFLUENCE  OF  JOY 

our  ideas.  The  wide  prevalence  of  some 
evil  things  is  hard  to  prove  because  so 
secret  and  ill-reputed  as  to  be  denied;  the 
affective  dominance  of  human  (as  of  brute) 
behavior,  it  seems  likely,  is  one  of  these 
things.  But  it  seems  probable  too  that  it 
is  the  disrepute  and  not  the  dominance  that 
is  to  be  deplored  and,  some  day,  outgrown. 
At  any  rate,  it  is  now  more  and  more  gen- 
erally recognized  by  psychologists  that 
that  aspect  of  the  mental  stream  that  we 
term  emotional  or  affective  supplies  the 
energy,  the  motivity  if  not  the  "motive"! 
of  our  more  usual  life-process.  Of  com 
reality,  the  behavior  is  all  one  thing  and  its 
"aspects"  have  no  modifying  power  either 
way  or  any  way,  "an  emotion"  being  hut 
a  period  of  the  continuous  series  affectively 
tinged,  but  determined  otherwise.  On  this 
obvious  account  every  factor  of  both  the 
bodily  and  the  mental  conditions  enters 
our  special  problem. 

It  is  time  now  in  our  argument  to  begin 
M 


AN  OUTLINE  SURVEY 

• 

to  specialize  on  the  joyful  side  of  the 
affective  balance,  and  to  point  out  some  of 
its  many  particular  conditions  in  the  uni- 
fied human  economy. 

In  order  to  accomplish  this,  we  must 
consider  whatever  we  can  find  that  makes 
for  a  general  increase  of  gladness,  delight, 
or  happiness  in  the  individual,  not  of 
course  particular  objects  or  acts,  but 
tendencies  common  to  our  human  animal 
life.  At  least  nine  or  ten  such  condi- 
tions, reasonably  distinct  (although  al- 
ways parts  of  a  whole  separated  only  by 
science),  can  be  discerned  and  must  be 
briefly  noted  if  we  are  really  to  under- 
stand the  influence  of  gladness  over  our 
days.  To  try  to  arrange  these  joy  factors, 
technically  called  "euphoric,"  in  the  order 
of  their  relative  importance  would  be 
pedantic,  so  complex  and  varied  are  they 
all ;  but  if  there  be  a  real  trend  either  way 
in  this  matter,  perhaps  the  following  ar- 
rangement represents  it.  As  contrasted, 
37 


THE  INFLUENCE  OF  JOY 

then,  with  a  period  of  the  mental  and 
bodily  "stream"  felt  to  be  unpleasant,  an 
agreeable  period,  a  pleasant  feeling  or 
emotion,  has,  we  may  assume,  1,  An 
increase  in  the  kinesthesia  from  the  ex- 
pansive and  extensor  movements  of  the 
body;  2,  Increased  action  of  the  cranial 
(and  of  the  sacral)  autonomic  nerve  cen- 
ters; 3,  A  lowering  of  the  inhibition  ex- 
erted by  the  upper  layers  of  the  cerebral 
cortex;  4,  General  personal  excitement  ; 
5,  An  increase  of  circulating  fat;  (>,  Vaso- 
dilation  in  sundry  regions  of  the  body; 
7,  An  increase  of  sugar  in  the  blood;  8, 
Increased  secretion  in  sundry  bodily  re- 
gions; 9,  Biologic  naturalness  of  the  func- 
tions of  the  skin;  10,  A  lessening  of 
weariness. 

It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  all  of  these 
have  any  degree  of  constancy  in  plea 
emotion,  for,  as  we  have  seen,  the  feelings 
are  many,  and  no  two  are  alike !     Some  of 
these   factors   are   prominent   in   some   af- 

38 


AN  OUTLINE  SURVEY 

fective  states  and  inconspicuous  in  others. 
At  the  same  time  it  is  doubtful  if  any  one 
of  them  is  in  'health  wholly  absent  or 
actually  negative  in  a  plainly  delightful 
experience.  Here  as  elsewhere,  then,  we 
are  trying  to  "strike  the  average",  to  de- 
rive a  general  idea  of  joy  applicable  to 
any  of  fifty  unique  feelings. 

These  ten  factors  at  least  are  in  every 
case  complex  technical  processes  or  con- 
ditions for  psychology  and  physiology 
to  describe.  Other  factors  of  general 
pleasantness  than  these  ten  there  are 
aplenty  without  a  doubt ;  some  of  them 
have  not  been  discerned  as  yet  in  the 
complexities  of  life,  and  some  of  them  are 
temporary  or  local  or  unreliable  as  to  their 
trend.  But  after  all,  these  ten  are  ample 
for  our  present  purpose  of  demonstrating 
the  primal  import  of  natural  activities  in 
the  conduct  of  the  happy  life.  That  these 
processes  as  mentioned  and  suggested  are 
on  the  average  truly  pleasantness-pro- 


THE  INFLUENCE  OF  JOY 

ducing  I  think  will  scarcely  he  denied:  it 
remains,  then,  to  point  out  the  scientific 
basis  of  the  "moral",  of  its  practical  sig- 
nificance or  interpretation  in  a  workaday 
and  play-a-day  world.  The  reason  why 
joy  and  its  congeners  exert  a  beneficial 
influence  over  life,  why  life  loveth  a  cheer- 
Jul  lircr,  lies  hid,  for  some  readers  at  least, 
in  the  relations  of  these  ten  factors  to  the 
organic  process,  in  short,  in  their  dynamic 
basi<.  Let  u-  try  to  understand  clearly, 
then,  what  this  is  and  what,  for  us  now,  it 
means.  It  would  be  well  were  it  as  easy 
to  express  as  to  appreciate  it. 


40 


CHAPTER  II 
The  Influence  on  Nutrition 

IN  its  material  aspect,  the  human  in- 
dividuality is  primarily  metabolic  or 
chemical,  and  its  metabolism  or  pro- 
toplasmic life  underlies  of  necessity  all  other 
bodily  processes.  Our  first  search,  there- 
fore, in  our  present  endeavor  to  illustrate  the 
influence  of  happiness,  organic  and  personal, 
on  the  human  life,  is  to  understand  in  what 
manner  it  affects  nutrition.  For  our  im- 
mediate purpose,  this  term  nutrition  shall 
include  digestion,  absorption,  excretion,  and 
"assimilation"  (metabolism)  and  shall  im- 
ply something  of  personal  dietetics,  appetite, 
weight  variations,  and  so  forth. 

The  gist  of  this  understanding  is  part 
of  the  deep  common  wisdom  of  the  world, 
as  may  be  seen  in  the  habit  in  practice  all 
41 


Till-    [NFLUENCB  OF  JOY 

tho  way  down  from  the  Old  Empire  on  tin- 
Nile  to  our  banquet  of  yesternight,  to 
have  all  things  pleasant,  attractive,  and 
sedative  when  we  eat  ideally.  This  re- 
lationship is  not  of  course  epicureanism 
only,  ignoring  life's  real  values,  but  is 
rather  a  matter  of  practical  workaday 
importance  to  long  and  happy  life.  Per- 
sonal experience,  fortified  perhaps  by  an- 
cestral counsel,  has  shown  us  all  that  at 
picnics,  on  holidays,  and  during  vacations, 
in  each  of'  which,  ordinarily,  the  joyous 
index  is  higher  than  usual,  our  appetite, 
like  our  digestion  and  bodily  nutrition, 
is  more  than  usually  energetic.  We  all 
know,  too,  as  first-hand  knowledge,  that 
it  the  care-free,  holiday  spirit  last  only 
two  hours  (during  the  meal  and  after), 
our  nutrition  profits,  being  performed  with- 
out discomfort  and  with  dispatch. 

This  well-known  principle,  for  reasons 
just  suggested,  is  in  a  way  the  very  heart 
of  this  book's  thesis.  It  means,  as  one 

42 


THE   INFLUENCE  ON  NUTRITION 

may  clearly  see,  that  the  state  of  "free- 
dom from  care,"  as  Saleeby  expresses  it, 
contentment,  organic  happiness,  somehow 
yields  energy  for  the  use  of  the  body ; 
while  it  implies  at  least  that  the  opposite 
unhappy  states  such  as  worry,  hurry, 
vexation,  grief,  envy,  jealousy,  even  pure 
anger,  lessen  the  power  available  for  organic 
maintenance.  The  principle  is,  then,  so 
fundamental  that  to  understand  it,  so  far 
as  may  be,  is  essential. 

Although  more  or  less  confusing  with 
the  factors  of  organic  happiness  just  noted 
(the  personality,  despite  its  dual  aspects, 
is  normally  one  perfect  integration),  there 
are  certain  processes,  fundamental  in  our 
living,  which  represent  more  precisely  just 
these  dynamic  nutritive  conditions.  For 
the  sake  of  clearness,  these  must  be  made 
more  explicit,  even  if  the  recency  of  our 
physiologic  knowledge  in  some  cases  makes 
certainty  impossible  and  detailed  relation- 
ships at  present  unstatable. 
43 


THi;   INFLUENCE  OF  JOY 

The  first  of  these  nutritional  dynamic 
processes  apparently  depends  on  an  already 
famous  internal  secretion  of  the  interior  of  a 
(li/i-tlt'xx  ijlnmL  the  adrenal.  This  secretion  is 
adrenin  (called  also  epinephrin,  adrenalin, 
and  suprarenin) ;  it  is  not  to  be  confused 
with  the  product  of  the  adrenal  gland's 
cortex  or  rind,  about  which  less  is  known 
but  which  appears  to  be  of  opposite  action. 
1 1  is  to  Biedl  especially  that  we  owe  our 
original  knowledge  of  adrenin,  but  Dreyer, 
Cannon  and  his  colleagues  (especially  per- 
haps Hoskins  and  De  la  Paz),  and  Elliott 
have  done  much  toward  relating  thi>  in- 
formation to  the  vital  machinery. 

The  ground  fact  is  that  a  slight  increase 
of  this  powerful  substance  in  the  rapidly 
circulating  blood  constricts  the  arterioles, 
the  smaller  blood  vessels,  an  effect  of  far- 
reaching  importance;  and,  furthermore, 
it  brings  about,  as  has  been  noted  already, 
a  rise  in  the  sugar-content  of  the  tissues, 
especially  muscle.  This  general  vasocon- 

44 


THE  INFLUENCE  ON  NUTRITION 

striction,  as  it  is  called,  raises  the  blood 
pressure,  and  this  in  turn  is  undoubtedly 
an  important  factor  in  increasing  the  ac- 
tivity of  the  voluntary  muscles  generally 
over  the  body,  thus  adding  to  the  "ex- 
citement" of  the  individual  and  making 
the  muscle,  about  one  half  of  the  body's 
mass,  fresher,  more  apt  for  exercise,  less 
fatigued.  The  increase  of  sugar  in  the 
blood,  again,  result  of  the  influence  of  some 
substance,  probably  adrenin,  on  the  liver, 
storehouse  of  carbohydrate  energizers,  acts 
directly  to  feed  additionally  the  muscle 
cells  and  to  animate  them  to  immediate 
and  more  strenuous  action. 

In  a  more  general  sense  than  this,  im- 
proved bodily  nutrition  is  a  second  dynamic 
factor  of  joyfulness.  Gastronomic  imag- 
ination and  association  of  ideas ;  appetite ; 
digestion ;  absorption ;  elimination  of 
refuse;  and  probably,  though  unproven 
as  yet,  assimilation,  —  each  and  all  are 
allowed  to  proceed  in  their  "mechanical" 
45 


THi;    INFLUENCE   OF   ,IOY 

vigor  and  speed  and  certainty  by  an  ab- 
sence of  disturbing  influences.  "Fletcher- 
ism",  so  called,  the  emphasis  on  the  need 
of  really  using  the  teeth  and  jaw  muscles 
and  saliva,  furnishes  an  example  of  the 
increased  nourishment,  as  measured  by 
Chittenden,  coming  from  leisure  employed 
unhurriedly  and  unworriedly,  in  m;i-(i- 
cation. 

This,  too,  is  an  element  in  the  abolition 
of  the  feeling  of  fatigue. 

A  third  invigorating  process  underlying 
agreeable  emotion  is  yrncrultzcd  bodily  ex- 
ercise. The  well-known  Fer6  showed  us 
fifteen  years  ago  that  of  all  stimulants  to 
physical  exertion  none  is  more  effective, 
as  none  is  more  natural,  than  physical 
exercise  itself.  In  athletics  this  principle 
has  long  been  in  practice  in  the  universal 
habit  of  "warming  up."  The  influence  here 
is  apparently  a  specific  one  on  the  muscle 
tissue  (and  nerve  tissue?)  itself,  and  not 
simply  the  obvious  raising  of  the  heart 

46 


THE  INFLUENCE  ON  NUTRITION 

rate,  of  the  blood  pressure,  and  of  the 
spirits  and  courage  of  the  individual. 
Much,  indeed  most,  remains  unknown  in 
regard  to  the  details  of  muscular  contrac- 
tion and  relaxation,  and  true  explanation 
of  the  stimulation  of  exercise  itself  on  the 
action-system,  lies  hid  in  this  uneloquent 
physiologic  silence. 

The  fourth  and  last  of  the  dynamic 
nutritional  factors  we  are  considering  was 
the  third  in  our  list  of  contributions  or 
conditions,  namely,  some  degree  or  other 
of  abeyance  in  the  restraint  of  instinctive, 
emotional,  reflex,  or  habitual  actions,  in  short 
of  the  motor  factors  of  what  Thorndike 
terms  "the  original  nature  of  man."  Les- 
sening of  a  restraint  of  course  allows  action. 
We  may  now  turn  to  this  important  ele- 
ment of  our  argument,  postponed  from  the 
time  of  its  previous  mention  (page  21). 
No  one  of  the  other  conditions  has  perhaps 
quite  as  much  practical  moment  as  has 
this  one.  Few  things  indeed  in  the  search 
47 


THE  INFLUENCE  OF  JOY 

for  happiness  are  of  more  account  than 
habitual  rejuvenation  and  '* holiday"  so  pro- 
duced, whether  derived  through  knowledge 
and  spur  from  without  ("suggestion") 
or  through  intuition  and  knowledge  and 
initiative  within.  And  all  of  these  an* 
inherently  joyous.  Let  us  examine  a  little 
into  their  common  biologic  nature. 

From  the  evolutionary  standpoint  (and 
no  other  satisfies  one's  reason)  the  human 
mind  as  implement  of  the  inherent  and  per- 
haps "immanent"  personality  or  soul,  has 
gradually  appeared,  in  a  period  variously 
guessed  between  say  two  hundred  thou- 
sand years  and  five  hundred  thousand. 
It  is  not  only  because  it  is  our  mind, 
hut  because  it  is  truly  so,  that  we 
suppose  the  human  mind  to  have  in  it 
factors  both  more  complex  and  nearer  to 
the  divine  than  has  the  mind  of  any 
brute,  that  is,  of  any  animal  save  man. 
The  idea  of  personality,  then,  implies  n 
than  the  more  or  less  mechanistic  individ- 

48 


THE  INFLUENCE  ON  NUTRITION 

uality  of  the  brute.  That  difference,  that 
excess,  is  our  humanity,  our  humanness. 
If  we  analyze  it  by  the  methods  of  modern 
psychology  and  anthropology,  we  find  it 
mostly  composed  of  language,  therefore  of 
reason,  therefore  of  mental  and  moral  prog- 
ress, therefore  of  civilization,  and  therefore, 
finally,  of  personality  and  "character" 
with  its  mathematic  "limit"  in  God  Him- 
self. There  must  be  some  distinct  ele- 
ment, it  would  seem,  which  fundamentally 
marks  off  a  difference  so  profound  as  this 
and  so  boundless  in  its  possibilities  from 
the  apparent  limitations  of  the  brutes,  the 
"speechless"  animals.  This  something  I 
believe  to  be  control,  restraint,  "inhibi- 
tion." Its  difficulty  and  its  consequent 
biologic  unpleasantness,  it  may  be,  corre- 
spond to  its  overwhelming  valuation  in  the 
scale  of  ultimate  things. 

Personality,   however,   with   this   inhibi- 
tory endowment  as  its  characteristic  sign, 
shares    with    our    "poor"    relations,    the 
49 


THE  INFLUENCE  OF  JOY 

brutes  (and  the  trees?),  the  obvious  neces- 
sity of  close  and  adaptable  relationship 
with  an  environment  which  is  material  as 
well  as  spiritual.  This  materiality  de- 
mands that  part  of  the  life-process  shall 
be  body,  and  body  demands  in  its  turn 
nourishment  and  replacement  when,  in 
the  eternal  flood  and  ebb  of  life,  the  in- 
dividual Paracelsus  shall  have  "attained." 
Such  in  trite,  but  briefest,  contour  is  the 
simple  enough  yet  tremendous  philosophy 
of  the  personal  and  of  the  supporting  and 
reproducing  organism  which  combine  to 
constitute  the  essential  parts  of  human 
nature:  adequate  means  of  control  over 
much  which  is  strong  and  impulsive. 

The  mechanism  of  this  essential  strength 
and  impulse  of  the  actual  individual  man 
or  woman  we  have  termed  the  vegetative 
apparatus,  that  system  of  autonomic  and 
spinal  nerves  and  smooth  muscle  and 
glands  already  indicated  in  the  first  chap- 
ter. Broadly  considered,  its  object  is  to 
50 


THE  INFLUENCE  ON  NUTRITION 

provide  the  energy  and  the  push  for  the 
entire  organism,  primarily,  it  may  be,  for 
its  own  common  vital  events,  but,  philo- 
sophically speaking,  for  something  else  also 
which  fares  both  further  and  higher.  This 
ulterior  something  is  of  course  the  volun- 
tary life,  human  and  personal  rather  than 
brutal  and  racial,  particular  rather  than 
general,  intensive  and  not  extensive  in  its 
action,  devoted  to  developing  (although 
it  be  often  unconsciously)  an  ultimate 
personality,  and  to  meeting  conditions 
which  for  that  personality  at  least  are 
generally  new  and  therefore  difficult.  Per- 
sonality involves  of  necessity,  it  seems  to 
me,  two  such  logically  opposed  but  practi- 
cally complementary  phases ;  one  is  rela- 
tively new  because  human,  but  the  other 
is  as  old  as  Life  itself,  richest  and  oldest 
category  of  the  human  mind,  and  the 
best  known. 

In    the    basal    need    of    universality    of 
these  vegetative  factors  of  the  personality, 
51 


THi:    INFLUENCE  OF  JOY 

there  is  implied  either  a  common  agree- 
aMeness  of  experience,  a  distinct,  conscious 
.satisfaction,  or,  at  the  very  least,  a  sub- 
consciousness  that  in  the  long  run  must 
not  be  unpleasant.  To  me  this  activity- 
pli  asantness  relationship  is  part  and  panvl 
of  the  rationality  of  the  Cosmos,  a  pre- 
sumption of  agreement  so  overwhelmingly 
universal  in  experience  that  its  contrary 
cannot  be  believed.  To  me,  at  any  rate, 
for  one,  a  million  years  of  life-evolution 
gradually  developing  an  affective  balance 
that  should  start  with  a  tilt  of  pain  or  of 
unpleasantness  yet  persist  and  continually 
prosper  and  evolve,  is  quite  unthinkable; 
one  can  imagine  it  or  fancy  it,  but  one 
cannot  think  it.  Thus,  in  application  to 
our  need,  the  impulse  to  activity  normally 
is  always  easy  and,  at  least  by  contrast, 
pleasant;  just  as  it  is  easy  to  be  a  not 
unfortunate  brute  animal,  or  to  be  a  care- 
free child  or,  being  adult,  to  make  holiday. 
But  the  very  impulsiveness  and  ease  of 
53 


THE  INFLUENCE  ON  NUTRITION 

action  of  the  autonomic  and  spinal  vege- 
tative machinery  implies  that  something 
other  must  be  at  least  less  easy  since 
actual  human  life  is  notoriously  difficult 
at  times  to  nearly  all  of  us,  and  to  some  of 
us  nearly  always  so.  This  that  is  less 
easy,  it  is  obvious,  is  the  control  of  the 
more  easy  —  the  voluntary  and  personal, 
in  short,  which  has  oh  so  gradually !  al- 
ready set  itself  as  over-lord  above  the 
vegetative  and  impulsive.  Here  indeed 
come  in  the  "associative  memory"  of  the 
biologists,  experience,  intelligence,  reason, 
the  flower  and  fruit  of  age-long  mental 
and  moral  evolution. 

The  essence,  in  a  word,  of  the  mode  of 
action  of  this  habitual  power  over  the 
impulsively  vegetative  is  inhibition.  Its 
machinery,  one  would  a  priori  expect, 
perhaps,  would  be  closely  related  to  (or 
even  identical  with,  it  may  be?)  those 
parts  of  the  action-system  which  represent 
intelligence,  civilization,  culture,  most 
53 


THE  INFLUENCE  OF  JOY 

closely,  namely,  the  great  cortex  of  the 
brain  and  the  wondrous  mechanism  of  the 
voluntary  muscle.  There  is  scarce  a  rea- 
sonable doubt  that  this  deduction  of  com- 
mon sense  is  wholly  corroborated  by  the 
inductions  of  modern  physiology.  We  may 
presume  then  that  this  essential  restrain- 
ing power  is  intimate  on  the  one  hand  with 
the  will,  the  personal,  individual  human 
will,  and  on  the  other  with  the  brain-parts 
devoted  to  the  human  intelligence.  The 
author  has  already  set  this  matter  forth 
in  sundry  places,1  and  even  had  he  and 
others  not  done  so,  this  small  volume 
were  no  place  for  it.  It  must  suffice  here, 
with  a  little  exception  soon  to  appear, 
that  it  be  granted  that  voluntary  move- 
ment, through  its  oeea-ioiiin^  kinesthesia, 
is  generally  inhibitory  with  its  integrating 
mechanism,  chiefly  the  cortex  of  the  brain. 

1  G.  V.  N.  Dearborn,  e.g..  "Kmeatheaa  and  the  Int. 
Will.  '  American  Journal  cf  Piycholon,  XXIV,  2,  April,   1013, 
illstd.,  pp.  204-255. 

54 


THE  INFLUENCE  ON  NUTRITION 

It   has   five    billion   nerve-units   to   do   it 
with! 

The  general  impression  that  the  cortex 
of  the  brain  represents  in  broad  terms  the 
restraining  control  of  sundry  impulses  (au- 
tomatisms, reflexes,  habits,  instincts,  emo- 
tions, etc.)  has  in  recent  years  been  rapidly 
gaining  ground,  we  might  say  not  only 
trench  after  trench,  but  in  actual  territory 
miles  at  a  time.  One  thinks  of  Ribot's 
revolutionary  work  on  attention  as  de- 
scribing an  essentially  inhibitory  process, 
and  of  his  predecessors  and  successors  from 
Des  Cartes  in  1662  to  the  most  recent 
researches  of  last  year  on  the  inhibitory 
internal  secretions  and  on  the  inhibitory 
nerve  fibers  and  nerve  cells.  On  the  pres- 
ent basis  of  inhibitory  kinesthesia  and  of 
the  resultants  of  cortex  association  (Sher- 
rington's  "final  common  paths "),  all  these 
related  matters  are  beginning  to  integrate, 
to  fuse  into  real  comprehension  of  the 
bodily  basis  of  skill,  efficiency,  civilization, 
55 


HIE  INFLUENCE  OF  JOY 

and    culture,    the    human     successors    of 
bruteness  and  of  impulsive  savagery. 

The  important  principle  reduced  to  its 
commonest  and  lowest  terms  is  that  of 
our  grandmothers  in  the  home:  "One 
thing  at  a  time  and  that  done  well."  We 
now  know  that  our  nervous  systems,  in  so 
far  as  voluntary  and  conscious,  act  \vith 
skill  precisely  on  that  rule:  we  can  v<>! 
untarily  attend  only  to  one  movement, 
one  bit  of  deliberate  behavior,  at  a  time. 
It  it  is  to  be  consciously  done  well,  it 
must  be  "one  thing  at  a  time";  and  it 
must  involve,  moreover,  the  correlation  of 
the  forces  of  the  entire  cortex  (more  or 
less)  so  that  their  result  involves  all  (more 
or  less)  of  its  stored  experience,  wisdom, 
-kill,  civili/ation,  culture. 

Now  this  singleness  of  mind  and  of 
action  means  several  things  essential  to 
our  argument,  to  which  we  will  refer,  how- 
ever, only  by  mere  mention.  One  thing 
implied  is  the  general  consciousness  or  al- 
56 


THE  INFLUENCE  ON  NUTRITION 

tention  of  the  entire  voluntary  personality. 
Otherwise,  at  least,  the  action  is  not  a 
truly  voluntary  movement,  but  is  in  some 
degree  already  habituated,  as  indeed  are 
nearly  all  our  acts.  This  implies  a  second 
characteristic  of  voluntary  action,  namely, 
its  novelty;  a  strictly  voluntary  move- 
ment, theoretically  speaking,  has  never 
been  made  before  or  at  least  only  a  few 
times  before,  not  often  enough  at  any 
rate,  by  definition,  to  have  become  in  any 
degree  habitual.  On  account  of  this  nov- 
elty of  a  "deliberate"  action,  thirdly,  its 
performance  is  difficult.  This  is  an  uni- 
versal experience  and  needs  no  illustration. 
Its  physiologic  explanation  may  perhaps 
be  found  in  the  common  supposition  that 
a  wholly  new  movement  involves  the  pri- 
mary forcing  of  a  new  association  through 
or  "along"  unaccustomed  nerve  paths  by 
the  hundred  or,  it  may  be,  by  the  many 
thousand,  at  a  time. 

It  needs  no   argumentation  to  have  it 
57 


TIII;  INFLUENCE  OF  JOY 

plain  that  this  difficulty,  due  to  the  novelty 
of  the  brain's  activity,  should  be,  lastly, 
unpleasant.  Rationally  thus  unpleasant  in 
itself,  because  of  its  conscious  perplexity, 
it  may  be  also  unpleasant  by  mere  contrast 
with  the  ease  and  smoothness  of  vegetative, 
reflex,  and  habituated  movement. 

But  whatever,  in  strict  physiologic 
science,  be  the  cause  of  the  disagreeable- 
ness  of  organic  restraint  of  things  that  are 
habitual  and  therefore  easy  and  hence 
pleasant,  there  can  be  no  doubt  in  any 
one's  mind  that  its  unpleasantness,  even  if 
often  little  more  than  a  sense  of  difficulty, 
is  a  real  power  continually  acting  and 
therefore  of  great  total  import  in  the 
groundwork  of  behavior  as  the  long  de- 
scent of  man  has  made  it.  This  is  seen  to 
be  especially  emphatic  as  a  basis  of  1  Be- 
havior when  one  considers  that  by  cont 
with  the  habituated  processes,  vegetative, 
and  therefore  immediately  satisfying,  and 
often  positively  pleasant  or  pleasurable 

58 


THE  INFLUENCE  ON  NUTRITION 

even  to  the  acme  of  human  experience,  this 
whole  class  of  actions  of  restraint  would  be 
deemed  especially  disagreeable,  in  general 
and  in  particular,  in  universal  repute. 

But  after  all,  it  is  not  the  pure  restraint 
process,  unpleasant  or  even  almost  painful 
as  it  may  be  (has  the  gentle  reader  ever 
tried  to  allow  a  fly  to  gyrate  undisturbed 
on  the  end  of  the  reader's  nose,  or  has  he 
ever  stepped  without  jumping  on  the  point 
of  a  broken  clam-shell  hidden  in  the  mud  ?), 
it  is  not  this  especially  by  itself  which  is 
the*  importantly  unpleasant  element  in 
inhibition,  but  the  complex  of  emotional 
factors  which  uses  this  as  its  physiologic 
basis.  Indeed,  this  matter  is  so  important 
in  our  explanation  of  the  influence  of  joy, 
that  we  shall  pay  especial  attention  to  it 
in  the  second  part  of  the  book,  under  the 
head  of  worry,  for  example  (page.  174). 

To  the  thoughtful  reader  it  has  probably 
already  occurred  that  in  his  experience 
self-control  and  in  general  this  very  re- 
59 


THE  INFLUENCE  OF  JOY 

strain!  of  vegetative  impulses  is  sometimes 
a  delight,  and  even  one  of  the  most 
plea>ant,  it  may  chance,  of  his  entire 
motivity.  As  a  fact  of  pure  exprrit 
regardless  of  scientific  value,  I  am  willing 
to  admit  that  this  optimistic  fact  is,  for 
some  persons  and  some  periods,  sometimes 
real,  but  I  must  immediately  insist,  not  on 
fural  basis  as  yet,  but  on  an  artificial 
one,  not  biologically  or  physiologically,  but 
as  a  matter  of  religion,  of  ethics,  of  sug- 
gestion from  without  from  an  environ- 
ment over-cultured,  over-civilized,  yes,  even 
over-humanized,  never  by  any  means  the 
environment  of  the  average  man  or  woman, 
but  that  of  the  over-evolved  few,  far  from 
(he  scientific  basis  of  our  common  human- 
ity. Asceticism,  on  one  hand,  shows  it, 
typifies  it;  ascetieism  certainly  is  good  and 
the  anchorite  honest  with  himself  -  but 
only  when  the  joys  of  our  common  life 
have  withered  into  the  ground  or  evapo- 
rated into  the  sky ! 

60 


THE  INFLUENCE  ON  NUTRITION 

But  this  matter  surely  leads  us  too  far 
afield  from  our  task,  which  is  at  once  a 
scientific  and  a  practical  one,  bending  its 
back  to  the  biological  problem  as  it  af- 
fects us  all  until  in  the  slow  but  certain 
melioration  of  mankind  our  bodies  and 
their  heaven-sent  impulses,  our  natural 
life,  shall  no  longer  need  restraint.  This 
era  will  surely  come. 

Now  then,  at  length,  the  two  weights 
of  the  affective  balance  are  before  us : 
one  vegetative  and  active  and  impulsive, 
but  the  other  personal  and  restrictive  and 
deliberate;  the  former  inherently  always 
pleasant,  the  latter,  in  the  long  run,  diffi- 
cult and  disagreeable.  If  I  have  not  failed 
wholly  to  express  my  meaning,  it  is  clear 
that  a  personality  consists  in  part  of  two 
processes  which  might  be  characterized  as 
a  center  of  restraint  with  much  to  restrain 
or  even  as  a  process  of  restraint,  provided 
the  vegetative  be  fully  implied  in  the  vol- 
untary, the  impulsive  in  the  deliberately 
61 


THE  INFLUENCE  OF  JOY 

inhibitory,  for  the  personality  certainly 
includes  both.  On  the  one  side  of  the 
balance  in  the  affective  scale-pan  lies  the 
pleasant  normal  activity,  so  far  as  Lift  is 
concerned,  expression;  in  the  other  pan, 
repression.  Activity  has  as  its  symbol 
Joy  !  Youth  !  Re  j  uvenation  !  Repress  ion 
suggests  -  -  Hope. 

So  much  (and  scientifically  in  far  too 
concise  a  form)  for  the  dynamism  or  en- 
ergism  orkineticism  —  for  the  "push"  -of 
joy.  If  these  facts  be  kept  in  mind,  the 
applications  to  the  theory  and  prarfi< 
\\cll-living  cannot  be  difficult  for  any 
reader  who  cares  to  make  them. 

To  report  anew  the  observations  of  Beau- 
mont, Pavlov  !  in  Petrograd,  Cannon 
Boston,   Carlson8  in  Chicago,   Crile,  and 


1  J.  P.  Pavlov.  "The  Work  of  the  Digestive  Glands  '  , 
son,  translator,  London,  1002. 

*W.  B.  Cannon,  "The  Mechanical  Factors  in  Digestion", 
London  and  New  York,  1911.  Also  his  "Bodily  Changes" 
already  referred  to. 

'A.  J.  Carlson,  "Contributions  to  the  Physiology  of  the 
Stomach",  American  Journal  of  Physiology,  1912-1915. 

M 


THE  INFLUENCE  ON  NUTRITION 

of  others  before  these,  may  seem  perhaps 
superfluous  to  certain  readers.  But  Can- 
non's earlier  (1898)  observations  on  the 
cat  are  at  once  so  germane  to  our  purpose 
and  so  "classic"  withal,  that  we  should 
not  omit  to  repeat  them : 

"In  my  earliest  observations  on  the 
stomach,"  says  the  able  successor  of  Bow- 
ditch  at  Harvard,  "I  had  difficulty,  because 
in  some  animals  peristalsis  was  perfectly 
evident,  and  in  others  there  was  no  sign 
of  activity.  Several  weeks  passed  before 
I  discovered  that  this  difference  in  response 
to  presence  of  food  in  the  stomach  was 
associated  with  a  difference  in  sex.  The 
male  cats  were  restive  and  excited  on  being 
fastened  to  the  holder,  and  under  these 
circumstances  gastric  peristalsis  was  absent ; 
the  female  cats,  especially  if  elderly,  sub- 
mitted with  calmness  to  the  restraint,  and 
in  them  the  peristaltic  waves  took  their 
normal  course.  Once  a  female  with  kit- 
tens turned  from  her  state  of  quiet  con- 


THE  INFLUENCE  OF  JOY 

hutment  to  one  of  apparently  restlos 
anxiety.  The  movements  of  the  stomach 
immediately  stopped,  and  only  starhd 
again  after  the  animal  had  been  petted 
and  had  begun  to  purr.  I  later  found  that 
by  covering  the  cat's  mouth  and  nose  with 
the  fingers  until  a  slight  distress  of  breath- 
ing occurred,  the  stomach  movements 
could  be  stopped  at  will.  Thus,  in  the 
cat  any  sign  of  rage,  or  distress,  or  mere 
anxiety,  was  accompanied  by  a  total  cessa- 
tion of  the  movements  of  the  stomach.  I 
have  watched  with  the  X  rays  the  stoinaeh 
of  a  male  cat  for  more  than  an  hour,  dur- 
ing which  time  there  was  not  the  sligl 
beginning  of  peristaltic  activity,  and  yet 
the  only  visible  indication  of  excitement 
in  the  animal  was  a  continued  to-and  -I'm 
twitching  of  the  tail.  What  is  true  of  the 
cat  has  been  proved  true  also  of  the  ral>l>it, 
dog,  and  guinea  pig.  Even  slight  psychic 
disturbances  were  accompanied  by  stop- 
page of  peristalsis.  .  .  .  Lommel  found 

N 


THE  INFLUENCE  ON  NUTRITION 

that  small  dogs  in  strange  surroundings 
might  have  no  movements  of  the  stomach 
for  two  or  three  hours.  And  whenever 
the  animals  showed  any  indications  of 
being  uncomfortable  or  distressed,  the 
movements  were  inhibited,  and  the  dis- 
charge from  the  stomach  checked.  .  .  . 

"  Fubini  observed  that  fear  occasioned 
more  rapid  peristalsis  [in  the  intestine]. 
.  .  .  There  is  no  doubt  that  many 
emotional  states  are  a  strong  stimulus  to 
peristalsis,  but  it  is  equally  true  that  other 
emotional  states  inhibit  peristalsis.  In 
the  cat  the  same  conditions  which  stop  the 
movements  of  the  stomach  stop  also  the 
movements  of  the  intestines,"  etc. 

When  it  is  realized  by  the  reader  that 
these  cessations  spoken  of  mean  acute  in- 
digestion if  long  continued,  with  the  pain, 
decomposition  of  food,  intestinal  irritation, 
toxemia,  malaise,  etc.,  so  familiar  to  mul- 
titudes of  folk,  the  basal  importance  of 
the  facts  as  stated  does  not  need  addi- 
65 


'II IK    INTM  i:\CE  OF  JOY 

tional  demonstration.  We  may  be  prac- 
tically sure  that  in  man,  owing  to  his  more 
sensitive  and  psychical  nervous  system, 
these  effects  and  relations  are  even  more 
conspicuous  than  in  these  brutes. 

11  ic  important  thing  is  to  realize  as 
certain  that  the  general  unpleasant  atti- 
tude of  mind,  the  angor  animi  of  the  writers 
of  the  Middle  Ages,  is  incompatible  with 
vigorous  and  complete  digestion.  A  > 
of  feeling  in  a  hurry  is  by  itself  ample  oc- 
casion of  an  indigestion,  this  being  physio- 
logically a  worry  lest  one  be  late.  In  like 
manner  every  vexatious  and  depres-in^ 
state  of  mind,  all  being  emotional  states, 
be  it  observed,  are  apt  to  lessen  or  even 
stop  the  autonomir  rhythm  of  the  stomach 
and  duodenum  at  least,  and  in  every 
probability  to  lessen  the  amount  of  the 
digestive  juices  provided  for  the  pro* 
Hundreds  of  illustrations  of  this  fact  are 
in  the  books  for  any  one  to  read;  and  the 
quick-lunch  counters  and  the  inferior  board- 
Go 


THE  INFLUENCE  ON  NUTRITION 

ing  houses  and  the  commoner  restaurants 
are  rich  fields  for  observation  of  its  truth. 
It  is  necessary  to  understand  then  that 
this  is  a  real  bodily  influence,  and  equally 
essential  to  appreciate  its  vast  underlying 
importance  in  the  lifelong  welfare  of  mil- 
lions of  men  and  women.  It  is  a  trite 
subject,  to  be  sure,  but  none  the  less  es- 
sential because  thus  hard  to  drive  into  the 
effective  control-mechanism  of  men's  lives. 
Dyspepsia,  which  means  difficulty  in  di- 
gestion, in  the  passing  decades  and  cen- 
turies is  more  momentous  than  wars  even, 
unthinkably  awful  as  they  are,  and  worse 
in  its  retardation  of  universal  civilization 
and  culture  than  all  the  oldtime  plagues, 
taking  millions  as  they  did  sometimes, 
with  woe  unspeakable,  out  of  Europe's 
life.  For  here  is  something  that  goes  on 
day  in  and  day  out  for  a  score  or  two  of 
years,  in  the  large  majority  of  every  coun- 
try's workers.  It  is  such  expenditures 
that  are  important,  not  the  occasional 

67 


i  in:  IM  u  KVI:  OF  .JOY 

(  \f  ruvagance,  as  every  economist  knows,  as 
every  medical  man  preaches  in  its  applica- 
tion for  example  to  the  use  of  alcohol.  As 
we  appreciate  better  how  literally  one  are 
mind  and  body,  aspects  of  some  tertium 
quid  that  science  does  not  as  yet  dr-ei-ibe, 
the  better  do  we  realize  the  therapeutic 
value  of  psychologic  principles  like  this. 

One  hears  of  late  no  end  of  dietetic  wis- 
dom sounding  in  the  air,  but  the  matter 
of  diet  is  of  small  moment  in  coinpari-on 
to  the  simple  command  of  Nature:  "Eat 
in  good  humor  not  too  much  of  ordinary 
food."  Dieting  often  means  little,  but 
the  digestive  effect,  easier  to  arrange,  often 
means  very  much. 

Sadler,  in  a  recent  popular-styled  book  l 
of  much  practical  usefulness,  has  in  these 
terms  summari/ed  the  effects  of  "faith" 
on  digestion : 

«  W.  S.  Sadler.  "The  Physiology  of  Faith  and  Fear",  Chicago, 
1913.  The  author  of  this  book  owes  much  to  Professors  W. 
S.  Hall  and  R.  U.  Gault  of  Northwestern  Unix 

68 


THE  INFLUENCE   ON  NUTRITION 

"The  gastric  secretion  is  produced  in 
abundant  flow  by  expectant  hunger;  the 
quality  of  digestion  is  increased  [sic]  and 
there  is  normally  balanced  juice;  the 
digestive  strength  is  excellent :  *  holiday 
digestion'  is  always  good;  psychic  dys- 
pepsia is  entirely  cured ;  stomach  move- 
ments are  strong  and  regular  as  in  normal 
digestion ;  digestion-time  is  shortened ; 
nervous  dyspepsia  is  relieved  and  re- 
moved; the  vomiting  center  is  quieted 
and  controlled;  intestinal  secretion  is 
increased  in  quantity,  copious,  and  its 
quality  is  strong  and  active,  and  its  flow 
regular;  the  intestinal  movements  are 
regular  and  normal;  and  constipation  is 
decreased." 

These  statements  are  probably  well 
within  the  truth,  although  it  is  likely 
that  Sadler  would  be  somewhat  hard 
pressed  to  give  the  exact  authority  by 
whom  each  of  these  results  was  actually 
observed. 

69 


THE   INTU  KNCE  OF  JOY 

To  any  who  has  read  to  good  advantage 
the  opening  chapter  of  the  present  volume, 
explanation  of  such  statements  and  of  such 
a  command  need  be  no  more  than  a  word : 
Good  humor,  joy,  is  the  index  of  activity; 
the  ingested  food,  putrefactive  bee 
moist  and  warm  and  bacteria-laden,  H  to 
be  digested  and  used  quickly,  if  at  all ; 
therefore,  in  our  syllogism,  "joy"  is  neces- 
sary for  nutritive  health,  Q.E.D.  Joy 
means  kinetic  energy,  the  great  normal 
activity,  both  mechanic  and  chemical. 

Life  loveth  a  cheerful,  not  a  melancholy, 
liver.  "Melancholy"  of  course  means 
"black  bile"  and  comes  from  a  time  of 
myth  and  of  ignorance  even  darker  than 
our  own  concerning  the  real  workings  of 
our  wondrous  organisms.  Bile  to  the 
people  of  that  time  was  a  harmful  agent, 
while  to  us  now  it  is  a  lack  of  bile  which 
tends  toward  nervous  dyspepsia  and  all 
its  factors  of  unpleasantness.  No  man 
perhaps  has  understood  these  subtle  in- 

70 


THE  INFLUENCE  ON  NUTRITION 

fluences  better  than  Henry  Maudsley,1  and 
he  thus  characterizes  the  two  "tempera- 
mental" elements  of  the  affective  balance : 
"However  miserable,  they  [the  joyous] 
have  not  the  least  inclination  or  desire  to 
end  their  sufferings  by  death :  so  long  as 
they  breathe,  it  is  a  happiness  to  breathe. 
Little  as  they  can  conceive  it,  however, 
there  are  persons  afflicted  with  a  constitu- 
tional melancholy  who  have  no  sense  of  a 
positive  enjoyment  in  living,  who  go 
through  with  life  as  with  a  task  that  is  to 
them  at  best  indifferent,  at  worst  burden- 
some and  painful,  and  who  at  certain 
times  when  more  out  of  tune  than  usual, 
are  oppressed  with  a  desponding  sense  of 
the  dreary  emptiness  of  life,  with  a  deep 
disgust  with  the  meanness  and  the  mean- 
inglessness  of  its  strifes,  with  a  weary 
apathy  from  all  its  interests." 

1  Henry  Maudsley,  "Pathology  of  Mind."  This  work, 
with  its  complement,  "Physiology  of  Mind",  is  still  a  classic 
description  of  "mental  fundamentals." 

71 


THE  INFLUENCE  OF  JOY 

The  great  lyric  of  melancholia  and 
spair,  James  Thomson's  "City  of  Dreadful 
Night,"  expresses  in  quite  other  words 
(his  same  temperamental  contrast : 

44  Yes,  here  and  there  some  weary  wanderer 
In  that  same  city  of  tremendous  night, 

Will  understand  the  speech  and  feel  a  stir 
Of  fellowship  in  all-disastrous  fight. 

*  I  suffer  mute  and  lonely,  yet  another 
Uplifts  his  voice  to  let  me  know  a  brother 

Travels  the  same  wild  paths  though  out  of  sight/ 

"Oh  sad  Fraternity,  do  I  unfold 

Your  dolorous  mysteries  shrouded  from  of  yore  ?  , 
Nay,  be  assured  ;  no  secret  can  be  told 

To  any  who  divined  it  not  before : 
Nonr  uninitiate  by  many  a  presage 

Will  understand  the  language  of  the  message 
Although  proclaimed  aloud  forevermore." 

These  quotations  sound  like  the  adol<  •-- 
cent  melancholy  and  pessimism  common 
to  nearly  all  widely  read  and  intelligent 
young  persons,  but  it  is  more  than  that 
and  more  lasting.  Closely  allied  to  "psycli- 
72 


THE  INFLUENCE  ON  NUTRITION 

asthenia ",  it  represents  in  all  probabil- 
ity a  badly  nourished  and  little  exercised 
nervous  system,  especially  the  autonomic, 
as  we  shall  see  more  fully  later. 

Guthrie  Rankin  has  put  much  in  small 
space  in  a  little  part  of  a  recent  article  in 
the  British  Medical  Journal: 

"Poor    innervation    of    the    alimentary 

canal   occurs   in   persons   with   hereditary 

nervous  instability,  and  in  those  who  have 

,  over  taxed    their    nervous    capacities.     All 

•  such  cases  are  accompanied  with  the  un- 

•  derlying  symptoms  typical  of  neurasthenia. 

•  The    chief    dyspeptic    symptoms    may    be 
extremely  variable  according  to  the  severity 
and    duration    of    the    disturbance.     They 
may  at  first  amount  to  little  more  than  a 
fear  of  certain  forms  of  food,   associated 
with   distress   after    eating.     In    the    later 
stages  acid  eructations,  severe  distress  two 
to  four  hours  after  meals,  epigastric  burn- 
ing and  pain,  a  sense  of  great  fullness,  etc., 
make  their  appearance.  .  .  .     The  taking 

73 


THE  INFLUENCE  OF  JOY 

of  food  between  meals  at  times  relieves  the 
>  m fort  for  a  short  while.  Physical  ex- 
amination in  the  early  stages  may  show 
nothing  referable  to  the  digestive  trad, 
but  later  there  is  often  considerable  gastric 
dilation,  tenderness  and  rigid  iff/  in  the 
right  epigastric  region,  and  often  a  dis- 
tt  mled  and  filled  colon.  [Atonic  consti- 
pation thus  suggested  is  in  itself  a  source 
of  great  and  lasting  discomfort  and  in- 
jury, especially  in  women.]  The  general 
physical  signs  of  neurasthaiin*  toother 
with  some  loss  of  weight  and  some  anemia, 
accompany  the  picture." 

I  have  italicized  the  words  which  sug- 
gest the  well-ni^h  universal  discomfort  or 
unpleasantness  of  this  extremely  common 
condition.  Here  certainly  are  the  typical 
symptoms  of  chronic  bodily  discomfort. 
What  heart  has  a  man  suffering  from 
conditions  like  these  for  the  free  and  joy- 
ous work  and  play  activities  of  the  bu-y, 
contented  life — until  indeed  he  escape- 

74 


THE  INFLUENCE  ON  NUTRITION 

its  vicious,  circling  round  of  malnutrition, 
pain,  and  weakness,  and  pain,  malnutri- 
tion, and  weakness,  years  on  end,  and  for 
the  "vicious  circle"  substitutes  the  benign 
circuit  of  complete  and  rapid  digestion 
and  enjoyment  and  strength  both  of  muscle 
and  of  nerve,  perhaps  even  till  death  them 
part  ? 

Some  readers  at  this  point  will  have 
in  mind  the  natural  and  familiar  How? 
But  the  important  question  has  been  an- 
swered so  very  often  of  late  that  we  do  not 
venture  to  do  so  again.  Indeed,  too  often 
is  the  self -protective  and  efficient  initiative, 
based  on  plain  common  sense,  of  the  aver- 
age man  or  woman,  ignored.  It  is  the 
present  supposition  that  science  has  done 
its  duty  when  it  has  presented  the  living 
facts  as  a  base  on  which  each  may  work 
out  his  own  salvation.  If  it  were  a  medic- 
inal specific  which  were  in  question,  hard 
to  obtain  and  difficult  to  administer,  the 
matter  would  be  a  different  one,  but  in  this 

75 


Till;   INFLUENCE  OF  JOY 

case  I  IK-  therapeutic  process  is  scarcely  K  » 
common  or  more  specific  than  common 
>ense  normality  of  living  itself.  Normal 
mind  is  active  and  contented,  if  not  happy, 
mind  ;  and  normal  body,  mind's  homologue, 
is  inevitably  active  and  progressive. 

Many  have  not  stopped  to  think  how 
intimately  the  enjoying  mind  and  the 
feeding  body,  both  in  prehension  and  in 
minute  cellular  assimilation  from  the  blood, 
are  integrated  and  how  helpful  to  each 
other  (if  for  a  moment  we  may  be  duali 
It  is  now  well  known  that  no  sense-ex- 
perience is  too  remote  from  the  in  ner- 
vations of  digestion  to  be  taken  into  its 
associations  and  serve  as  a  stimulus  of 
digestive  movements  and  secretions;  these 
facts  are  familiar  as  Pavlov's  "conditioned 
reflexes",1  but  did  multitudes  of  hurried 

1  J.  P.  Pavlov,  " Die  Psychische  Erregung  der  SpeichoMn : 
Ergebnitse  der  Phytiobgie.  1904.  I  Abt.,  S.  182.     See  also  .!     H 
WaUon's  interesting  continuation  of  the  matter  to  the  muscular 
reflexes  of  man:    "The   Place  of  the  Conditioned   Reflex   in 
Psychology,"  PtychoUyical  Review.  XXIII,  2,  March,  1916. 

76 


THE  INFLUENCE  ON  NUTRITION 

and  worried  men  and  women,  with  "no 
time  to  eat"  in  mental  peace,  know  these 
things  effectively,  in  their  subconscious 
minds  which  guide  their  actual  behavior, 
life  would  be  sweeter  to  them,  and  more 
useful. 

When  one  is  hungry  especially,  every 
mental  process  that  in  any  degree  touches 
or  can  associate  with  the  innervation  of 
digestion  starts  going  the  complex  nu- 
tritional machinery.  A  thought  of  some 
past  gastronomic  satisfaction,  the  visual 
memory  of  a  temptingly  arrayed  meat 
market  or  bakeshop  window,  is  quite 
enough  to  make  one's  mouth  water  with 
saliva,  first  link  in  the  digestive  chain. 
Here  comes  in  the  influence  and  the  physi- 
ology of  the  sometimes  highly  lauded  pleas- 
ures of  anticipation,  often  indeed  greater 
than  the  anticipated  reality,  for,  alone, 
the  mind  is  free  to  enjoy,  but  the  body  has 
conditions  which  oftentimes  conflict  in  the 
affective  balance. 

77 


mi:  IMU  I:\CE  OF  JOY 

But  this  anticipation,  that  of  eating 
when  one  is  hungry,  prepares  and  starts 
the  digestive  mill,  and  meanwhile  is  de- 
lightful. Wholly  in  like  manner,  the  ac- 
tual sight  of  food,  or  its  pleasant  odor, 
actuates  the  nutritive  process,  and  we 
may  be  reasonably  confident  that  the  more 
strictly  physiologic  as  distinct  from  psy- 
chologic be  the  mode  of  stimulation,  the 
farther  does  its  influence  immediately  ex- 
tend down  the  alimentary  canal.  Cannon 
has  pointed  out  how  well  connected  are 
the  processes  in  the  different  successive 
gastro-intestinal  portions  of  the  tube,  al- 
though previous  work,  that  by  Meltzer, 
for  example,  had  described  the  preliminary 
complex  interdependent  function  of  swal- 
lowing. Actual  contact  with  the  mouth's 
mucous  membrane  seems  to  be  necessary 
for  the  starting  of  the  gastric  hopper's 
movements,  while  the  proper  grinding 
begins  by  influence  from  the  hopper;  the 
pyloric  valve  (between  the  stomach  and 

78 


THE  INFLUENCE  ON   NUTRITION 

the  intestine)  is  opened  by  acid  material 
below  it,  thinks  Cannon  at  least;  the 
common  bile  duct  and  the  gall  bladder 
really  appear  to  be  actuated  by  food  in 
the  duodenum.  The  direct  observations 
on  the  movements  of  the  absorptive  villi 
made  by  Hambleton 1  (foretold  by  the  pres- 
ent writer  in  The  Psychological  Review,  XXI, 
3,  in  May,  1914,  in  an  article  entitled  "Cer- 
tain Further  Factors  in  the  Physiology  of 
Euphoria"),  led  him  to  believe  that  motions 
of  the  contractile  variety  at  least  were 
under  control  of  the  peripheral  nervous 
mechanism  and  so  subject  to  numerous 
modes  of  control  from  places  not  yet  de- 
fined. In  short,  it  is  likely  that  the  whole 
nutritive  mechanism  is  integrated  normally 
to  the  utmost.  So  that  it,  like  the  other 
sets  of  machinery  in  this  wondrous,  self- 
repairing,  chemical  mill,  is  one  with  the 
mental  process,  especially  in  its  subcon- 

1 B.  F.  Hambleton,  "Movements   of  the  Intestinal    Villi*', 
American  Journal  of  Physiology,  XXXIV,  4,  July,  1914. 

79 


THE  INFLUENCE  OF  JOY 

M  ious  phases,  and  each  in  a  degree  is  at 
once  subject  to  and  master  of  the  otli 
and  all  are  working  vigorously,  when  thr 
conscious  attention  or  the  general  dis- 
affection does  not  prevent,  for  the  common 
personal  benefit. 

We  are  probably  only  just  at  the  be- 
ginning of  the  accumulation  of  information 
that  will  show  every  one  ever  more  con- 
clusively that  mind  and  body  are  aspect-, 
in  practice  "mutually  dependent  to  any 
assignable  degree "  because  in  reality  one 
thing.  From  this  viewpoint,  consciousness 
is  the  experience  that  we  have  of  our  re- 
action to  environment,  and  when  the  re- 
action is  favorably  adapted,  it  is  pleasant  ; 
but  unpleasantness,  whatever  its  source, 
disturbs  the  adaptation.  Why  indeed,  as 
the  astute  Hack  Tuke  l  inquires,  following 
Shakespeare, 

1  D.  Hack  Tuke,  "Illustrations  of  the  Influence  of  the  Min.i 
upon  the  Body  in  Health  and  Disease",  London,  187*.  p.  * 
This  is  one  of  the  early  treatises  of  the  kind,  and  by  a  fain 
London  physician.    See  also  Robt.  Burton's  "The  Anatomy  of 

80 


THE  INFLUENCE  ON  NUTRITION 

"Why  should  a  man  whose  blood  is  warm  within, 
Sit  like  his  grandsire  cut  in  alabaster  ? 
Sleep  when  he  wakes  ?  and  creep  into  the  jaundice 
By  being  peevish  ?  " 

Melancholy  ",  London,  1652,  an  important  but  forbidding  classic 
even  to  a  student  of  Latin. 


81 


CHAPTER   III 
The  Influence  on  the  Circulation 

THE  blood  is  the  chief  means  of  ma- 
terial distribution  and  collection  in 
the  body,  supplying  oxygen  and 
food  and  drink  to  its  many  billions  of  evils 
and  taking  away  the  various  waste  from 
each  of  them.  Nothing  can  enter  a  tissue 
((11  save  from  the  circulation,  which  is 
therefore  seen  to  be  the  immediate  arbiter 
of  good  and  evil,  yes  of  life  and  death,  to 
each  of  the  vast  multitude  of  riti/cn-cells  in 
this  teeming  and  busy  body-republic. 

In  modern  physiology  as  in  ancient  law, 
tlir  circulation  is  t  he  criterion  of  life  as 
it  is  the  proof  of  death.  When  a  man's 
heart  stops  heating,  then  only  is  he  legally 
dead,  and  for  physiology  the  protoplasm 
of  the  tissues  ordinarily  dies  with  the  lym- 

H 


THE  INFLUENCE  ON  THE  CIRCULATION 

phatic  flow  around  it.  Thus,  if  a  heart 
be  made  to  stop  short  suddenly,  the  animal 
drops  dead,  because  the  cessation  of  nour- 
ishment in  certain  neurons  (nerve  cells)  of 
the  cerebellum  and  the  corpus  striatum 
in  the  brain,  and  perhaps  of  others  in  the 
spinal  cord,  has  instantly  lowered  to  zero 
the  tonus  of  the  trunk-supporting  muscles. 
From  this  lower  logical  limit  up  through 
every  grade  of  anemic  influence  to  conges- 
tion and  even  to  apoplexy,  the  bursting 
of  a  cerebral  artery,  the  circulation  and 
the  nervous  system  are  in  the  most  inti- 
mate possible  sympathy,  qualitative  and 
quantitative.  The  same  concert  is  true 
of  the  blood  and  the  glands,  and  of  the 
blood  and  the  muscles;  these,  blood, 
neurones,  glands,  and  muscle,  constitute 
the  action-system  integrated  with  the  mind 
and  together  so  as  to  be  one  single  mech- 
anism. Nothing  is  easier  to  demonstrate, 
yet  few  things  in  psychology  certainly 
are  more  frequently  forgotten  or  ignored. 

83 


THE  INFLUENCE  OF  JOY 

Since  Dunlap's  little  "Psychobiology" l 
appeared,  the  first  book  of  its  kind,  there 
is  no  longer  any  great  reason  for  the 
widespread  neglect  of  this  essential  organic 
integration* 

Its  general  outline,  moreover,  would 
seem  to  be  part  of  the  birthright  of  every 
boy  and  girl,  this  knowledge  of  the  momen- 
tous mechanism  of  efficiency,  for  only  so, 
appreciating  its  wonderfulness,  will  it  be 
properly  used  and  protected  and  repro- 
duced. In  no  other  single  case  than  this, 
far  and  away  the  most  important  of  all 
to  every  one  of  us,  are  people  expected  to 
safeguard  properly  complicated  machinery 
that  they  do  not  at  all  comprehend.  How 
can  one  wonder  that  under  this  common 
condition  the  mechanism  gets  over-heated 
in  parts,  rusty  in  some,  bent  in  others, 

1  Knight  Dunlap,  "An  Outline  of  Psychobiology  ",  Haiti- 
more,  1914.  Invaluable  to  students  of  psychology,  philosophy, 
physical  education,  and  to  educators  of  all  k'm-U.  including  man- 
ual trainers.  See  also  the  present  writer's  "Movement,  Genes- 
theaU,  and  the  Mind  "  in  the  Piyckological  Review,  May,  1916. 

84 


THE   INFLUENCE   ON  THE   CIRCULATION 

occasionally  broken  here  and  there,  and 
altogether  worn  out  and  "scrapped"  by 
the  managing  Director  long  before  it  has 
done  its  best  work  in  a  busy  world  ?  Cer- 
tainly, an  outline  of  psychophysiology, 
of  the  structure  and  action  of  the  human 
mechanism  of  efficiency  at  least,  is  every 
child's  plain  birthright,  and  before  long 
public  educators  will  appreciate  the  obvious 
fact. 

Not  the  least  important  part  of  this  in- 
tegrated apparatus  by  which  we  do  things 
and  become,  technically  speaking,  per- 
sonalities, is  the  heart,  the  compound 
duplex  suction-  and  force-pump  of  the 
circulating  blood  and  lymph.  Not  only 
physically  thus,  however,  but  psychologi- 
cally, is  the  heart  a  paramount  factor  of 
our  life,  for  the  term  stands  for  much  more 
than  a  pump!  Just  this  "more"  is  its 
essential  emotional  content  and  meaning 
with  which  we  here  are  chiefly  concerned. 
As  we  have  seen  already,  by  implication 
85 


HIE   INFLUENCE  OF  JOY 

chiefly,  the  heart  is  ordinarily  controlled  by 
the  autonomic  balance,  the  famous  truth 
cranial  nerve,  the  pneumogastric  (see  Eu- 
gene Field's  famous  poem)  serving  to  regu- 
late it  and  to  increase  its  force,  while  the 
sympathetic  proper  "furnishes"  its  rela- 
tively irresponsible  impulse  to  activity. 
But  the  pneumogastric  "nerve"  (in  reality 
it  is  a  whole  complex  system  of  pathways) 
receives  influences  from  practically  all  over 
the  body  except  directly  the  four  limbs. 
Stimuli  come  to  it  from  the  brain  centers  of 
emotion  (optic  thalamus),  of  muscular  tone 
(corpus  striatum),  and  of  intelligence  and 
association  (cortex  cerebri),  as  well  as  from 
the  entire  abdomen  and  thorax  and  all 
their  busy  and  sensitive  viscera.  Occa- 
sionally a  road  more  open  or  more  direct 
than  usual  between  the  voluntary  cor- 
tex and  this  nerve  gives  the  individual  a 
dangerous  deliberate  control  over  the  heart, 
so  that  it  inay  be  slowed  at  will  or  even 
stopped.  This  is  a  douhtfully  useful 

86 


THE   INFLUENCE   ON   THE   CIRCULATION 

faculty,  comparable  to  that  possessed  by 
a  student  of  the  author's  (Mr.  S.),  who 
can  voluntarily,  by  force  of  will  for  ten 
seconds  or  so,  erect  the  hairs  on  his  fore- 
arm, producing  to  perfection  the  phenomena 
of  "goose  flesh",  ordinarily  purely  an  in- 
voluntary sympathetic  function,  the  arrec- 
tores  pilorum  muscles  being  of  the  smooth 
variety. 

We  thus  see  that  while,  under  ordinary 
functional  (and  structural  ?)  conditions,  the 
heart  is  an  autonomic,  vegetative  organ, 
beautifully  innervated  from  all  sides  so 
as  to  do  well  its  supreme  work,  adapted 
to  every  breath  of  variation  in  the  hydrau- 
lic and  the  nervous  conditions,  it  yet  has 
at  its  elbow,  so  to  say,  ready  for  instant 
development  and  use,  direct  connections, 
we  might  say  (see  page  55  above),  with 
the  personal  will  of  the  individual.  This  is 
an  important  circumstance  for  our  pur- 
pose and  without  a  doubt  is  typical  of 
other  easily  developed  voluntary  powers 

87 


TIII-:  INTU  KNVI;  or  .iov 

perhaps  throughout  the  entire  vegetative 
organism.  Herein  is  the  physiologic 
ground  of  hypochondria  and  a  tagging 
host  of  knavish  followers  down  the  hill 
to  a  false  neurasthenia  and  on  to  a  fancied 
and  then  sometimes  a  real  invalidism. 
There  seems  no  assignable  limit  to  the  de- 
velopment of  deliberate  control  and  inter- 
ference with  functions  which  are  Imilt  to 
work  automatically,  and  which,  left  alone 
to  a  wholly  normal  life,  will  do  so  with 
marvelous  perfection,  year  in  and  out 
until  the  individual's  end  of  time.  The 
application  of  this  foundation  fact  and 
principle  to  the  influence  of  joy  plainly 
i-  indirect  (however  germane  to  the  theory 
and  practice  of  neurasthenia  and  of 
hysteria),  but  because  indirect  no  less 
essential.  It  means,  for  our  immediate 
purpose,  that  the  general  affect,  pleasant 
or  unpleasant,  and  the  particular  emot : 
are  under  voluntary  control,  or  at  least 
that  they  always  may  be,  the  normal  or- 

88 


THE  INFLUENCE  ON  THE  CIRCULATION 

ganism  having  ample  means  for  making 
the  normal  human  being  "captain  of  his 
soul",  creator  of  his  destiny.  The  body 
has  the  complete  machinery  for  preserving 
the  happiness  of  the  individual. 

In  practice,  then,  this  becomes  a  matter 
of  will-power  and  of  training,  which  means 
energetic  habituation.  This  factor  of  habit 
makes  practically  "all  the  difference  in 
the  world",  for  habit  readily  and  continu- 
ally usurps  the  throne  of  will  and  enslaves 
the  king  past  all  ennobling.  Failure  to 
adequately  appreciate  this  fact  is  what 
makes  Eddyism  (properly  Quimbyism) 
absurd,  and  the  oriental  doctrine  of  the 
will  frequently  unfruitful  and  misleading. 

That  the  heart  is  very  sensitive  to  affec- 
tive influence  the  child  begins  to  realize 
often  in  his  fifth  or  sixth  year,  and  the 
relation  remains  a  dominant  fact,  in  his 
subconsciousness  at  least,  always  after. 
The  physiologic  basis  of  this  emotional 
sensitivity  as  well  as  the  heart's  sus- 

89 


THE  INFLUENCE  OF    M>Y 

eeptibility  to  depressing  idea-complexes 
'tinged  with  feeling,  we  may  be  sure) 
was  exemplified  in  some  simple  but  im- 
portant experiments  performed  by  Lynn 
and  Quails l  on  seventeen  male  medical 
students.  The  research  was  in  two  parts: 

4 'Part  A.  The  pulse  rates  of  a  group 
of  thirteen  students  were  counted.  They 
were  then  given  milk-sugar  pills.  They 
were  told  that  they  had  taken  a  heart 
stimulant.  To  make  the  case  more  vivid, 
the  possible  action  of  such  drugs  was 
discussed  during  the  time  intervening 
between  the  first  and  the  second  counts. 
After  forty  to  sixty  minutes,  the  pulse 
rates  were  counted  again." 

Part  B.  was  similar  in  its  procedure, 
save  that  seventeen  students  were  studied, 
that  they  were  told  that  they  had  taken  a 
new  synthetic  cardiac  depressant,  and  that 


1  E.  P.  Lyon  and  G.  P.  Quails,  "Experiment*  with  Ca 
and  Cactin  ",  Journal  of  the  American  Medical  Association,  LY.  6, 
August  6. 1910,  455-459. 

M 


THE  INFLUENCE  ON  THE  CIRCULATION 

the   time   between   the   pulse   counts   was 
"from  twenty-five  to  forty  minutes." 

Of  the  thirteen  hearts  in  A,  nine  beat 
faster,  three  more  slowly,  and  one  did 
not  change  its  rate.  Of  the  seventeen  in 
part  B,  thirteen  beat  more  slowly  after 
taking  the  imaginary  depressant,  three 
beat  faster,  and  one  showed  no  change. 
The  "average"  increase  (a  specious  thing, 
the  average !)  was  four  and  two  tenths 
beats  per  minute,  nearly  six  per  cent;  the 
"average"  decrease  was  four  and  four 
tenths  beats  per  minute,  a  trifle  over  six 
per  cent.  When  we  come  to  discuss  the 
theory  of  suggestion  in  the  next  chapter, 
we  shall  refer  to  these  experiments  again, 
and  indeed  they  serve  as  a  valid  starting 
point  for  a  number  of  different  psychologi- 
cal investigations.  Just  here  the  results 
are  interesting  because  they  illustrate  es- 
pecially the  principle,  worth  noting  in  our 
argument,  that  idea-complexes,  formed  and 
maintained  without  any  emotion,  readily 
91 


THI;  IM-I.I  I:\CK  OF  JOY 

influence,  and  cither  actuate  or  inhibit, 
the  autonomic  nervous  system,  and  through 
these  they  influence  the  vegetative  life, 
hut  only  to  a  minor  extent  as  compared  irith 
conditions  predominantly  emotional.  Not  a 
man  among  those  seventeen  but  could  at 
will  readily  have  raised  his  heart  rate  by 
a  "pretended"  but  real  feeling  of  excite- 
ment of  some  kind  from  twenty  to  forty 
per  cent.  Increases  of  one  hundred  and 
eighty  per  cent  are  common  enough  in  male 
athletic  contests,  and  as  every  physician 
knows,  the  rates  usually  found  in  normal 
<jirls  of  six  or  eight  in  health  are  often 
thirty  or  more  per  cent  higher  than  when 
no  "doctor'*  or  his  influence  is  near;  and 
the  more  or  less  concomitant  breath  rate 
is  still  more  easily  disturbed  by  affective 
energies. 

Ideas  and  coneept -complexes  are  repre- 
sented in  the  body  probably  by  the  -<  n- 
sori-motor  in  nervation  (kinesthesia  and 
cenesthesia)  of  the  muscles  and  glands 

M 


THE  INFLUENCE  ON  THE  CIRCULATION 

which  could  in  some  one  of  numerous 
ways  express  them ;  but  affects,  as  we 
have  seen,  require  the  cooperation  of  much 
of  the  vegetative  organism,  and  of  the 
voluntary  muscles  as  well.  Emotional  re- 
actions are  inherently  dynamic,  as  well 
as  kinetic,  as  we  have  seen,  and  furnish 
their  energy  to  whichever  autonomic  re- 
sultant or  "final  common  path"  holds  at 
the  moment  the  middle  of  the  behavior 
stage. 

One  does  by  no  means  consider  doubtful 
the  numerous  accounts  that  are  to  be  read 
and  to  be  heard  of  the  invigorating  action, 
sometimes  over  even  the  most  pathologic 
states,  of  encouragement  activated  by  a 
vigorous  will.  Here  is  another  instance 
out  of  the  many  which  psychophysiology 
and  medicine  know  of  ancient  beliefs 
proved  true  and  explained  by  modern 
scientific  research  of  the  most  rigid  kind. 
The  genius  of  the  venerable  Th.  Ribot  of 
the  Universite  de  Paris  has  given  us  in 
93 


Till-    INFLl  ENCB  <>F  JOY 

his  "Creative  Imagination"  l  at  least  an 
outline  of  the  method  which,  if  folio 
in  the  ways  of  our  modern  laboratories  of 
psychology  and  of  physiology,  may  ex- 
plain many  things  most  scientific  men 
to-day  deem  fanciful  or  mistaken  or  irra- 
tionally mysterious.  Personally  I  am  of 
the  firm  and  deliberate  opinion  that,  in 
the  light  of  recent  work  on  the  one  hand 
in  neurochemical  physiology  and  on  the 
other  hand  in  more  or  less  speculative 
physics,  no  assignable  limit  can  be  set, 
even  by  hard  science,  to  the  influence  of 
the  "mind"  over  the  "body"  or  of  body 
over  the  mind.  The  category  Life  has 
values  of  its  own  which  no  man  really  wise 
can  longer  dare  to  ignore  and  hope  to  retain 
a  reputation  for  mental  breadth. 

As  an  example  at  hand,  and  withal  as 
good  as  another,  take  the  following  personal 
observation  of  W.  S.  Sadler,  M.I).,  from 
whom  I  have  already  quoted:  "We  were 

1  Th.  A.  Ribot,  "  Essai  BUT  1'imagination  creatrice".  Paria,  1900. 


THE   INFLUENCE  ON  THE   CIRCULATION 

summoned  to  the  bedside  of  a  patient 
whose  heart-action  was  almost  suspended 
as  the  result  of  a  frightful  hemorrhage. 
The  pulse  was  not  perceptible  at  the 
wrist,  and  the  heart  had  all  but  given  up 
the  struggle  [?].  While  the  attendants 
made  ready  to  inject  salt  solution  and 
administer  restoratives,  we  spoke  to  the 
patient  in  very  positive  and  assuring  terms, 
in  answer  to  her  question  as  to  whether 
or  not  she  was  dying,  and  immediately,  — 
almost  instantly,  —  before  a  single  material 
thing  had  been  done  for  her,  she  began  to 
rally:  the  heart  began  to  beat  with  in- 
creased vigor,  in  less  than  one  minute  the 
pulse  could  be  distinctly  felt  at  the  wrist, 
and  in  but  a  few  minutes  she  had  almost 
completely  rallied  from  a  threatened  col- 
lapse. This  was  very  evidently  a  case  of 
heart  rally  in  response  to  certain  stimuli 
and  nervous  energy,  originated  and  directed 
by  that  potent  and  powerful  mental  force, 
faith."  It  is  easy  to  imagine  what  might 

95 


THE   INFLUENCE  OF  JOY 

have  been  the  outcome  had  powerful 
suggestion  of  the  opposite  tenor  been 
offered  to  such  a  patient 

As  a  physiologist,  I  see  nothing  in  this 
effect  hard  to  understand  to-day;  as  a 
psychologist,  I  find  in  such  a  case  a  deal 
of  new  meaning  of  future  use  to  the  world 
when  we  have  learned  to  make  it  practical 
r<>r  general  application. 

Joy,  however,  especially  if  it  be  sudden, 
that  is,  unexpected,  frequently  so  influences 
the  heart  as  to  overthrow  its  nervous 
;md  hydraulic  equilibrium  and  thus  cause 

•i ting  or,  possibly,  even  death;  and 
nothing  could  better  suggest  the  reality  of 
joy's  cardiac  effects.  Tuke  cites  the  case 
of  Lucretia  Davidson,  'the  precocious 
American  poetess  who  died  at  seventeen: 
Her  susceptibilities  were  so  acute,  and 
her  perceptions  of  beauty  so  exquisite, 
as  to  cause  her  to  faint  when  listening  to 
some  of  her  favourite  melodies  from  Moore. 
Yet  notwithstanding  this  serious  impn 

96 


THE  INFLUENCE  ON  THE  CIRCULATION 

sion,  she  would  beg  to  have  them  re- 
peated, so  delicious  were  the  sensations 
produced."  The  influence  here,  however, 
thinks  Tuke,  was  both  emotional  and  sen- 
sory, with  the  former  as  "the  proximate 
cause  of  the  heart's  temporary  failure." 

Several  authentic  cases  are  in  the 
literature  of  death  from  supposed  heart 
collapse,  due  to  joy,  but  none  are  near 
enough  in  time  or  in  space  to  convince 
one  that  they  were  not  in  reality  due 
to  apoplexy,  or  to  the  bursting  of  an 
aneurism,  or  to  other  special  dangers 
dependent  on  a  sudden  great  rise  of 
arterial  blood  pressure.  Only  in  a  phil- 
osophic discussion  of  teleology  and  the 
like  would  the  matter  be  of  importance; 
certainly  not  here,  for  no  one  has  ever  shown 
that  the  danger  is  due  to  physiologic 
rather  than  to  pathologic  conditions. 

The  heart,  however,  is  not  all  there  is  to 
the  circulation,  but  only  one  of  its  five  or 
six  causes,  although  the  chief.  The  arteries 
97 


THE  INFLUENCE  OF  JOY 

are  also  important  organs  and  have  note- 
worthy, active,  emotional  influences.  Ac- 
tivity of  an  organ  always  demands  an 
increased  blood-flow  thither  which,  a>  in 
the  case  of  voluntary  muscle,  may  be  as 
much  as  five  or  six  hundred  per  cent. 
Blood,  like  other  liquids,  being  practi- 
cally incompressible,  this  increase  must 
be  made  possible  by  dilation  of  the  periph- 
eral arteries  or  by  hastening  the  blood- 
stream through  them,  or  by  both.  The 
last  is  the  most  likely,  dilation  lessening 
the  blood's  friction  and  the  increased  out- 
put from  the  left  ventricle,  due  to  I  lie  in- 
creased rate  always  seen  in  emotion,  cir- 
culating the  blood  more  often.  At  any 
rate,  the  circulation  is  an  important  factor 
in  the  bodily  aspect  of  emotion,  as  we  have 
already  seen.  The  whole  matter,  however, 
needs  careful  study,  as  does  indeed  the 
whole  prime  function  of  vasomotion,  so 
vital  in  emotion.  Especially  would  we  like 
to  understand  better  than  at  present  that 

U 


THE  INFLUENCE  ON  THE  CIRCULATION 

vasomotor  reciprocity  which  appears  to 
be  universal,  the  muscles,  the  omenta, 
the  skin,  and  the  brain  being  the  four  chief 
users  of  blood  and  respective  receivers 
of  it  when,  by  widespread  vasoconstric- 
tion,  it  is  expelled  from  some  other  place. 
Thus,  acute  joy  (contrast  it  with  fear  and 
grief!)  means  congestion  of  the  skin,  es- 
pecially of  the  head  and  neck,  and  of  the 
locomotor  muscles  and  those  of  personal 
expression  in  general.  But  the  congestion 
lessens  and  becomes  more  general  in  the 
more  chronic  forms  of  pleasant  emotion. 
It  is  not  to  be  doubted  that  in  this  general 
stimulation  of  the  essential  circulation  in 
all  constructive  parts  of  the  body,  such  as 
the  brain,  the  muscles,  and  the  digestive 
organs,  joy  exerts  one  of  its  most  conspic- 
uous benefits,  and  one  that  no  one  can 
doubt  or  ignore. 

Little  though  we  know  as  yet  about  blood 
pressure  in  its  relation  to  emotion,  we  can 
suspect  that  it,  like  blood  supply,  means 
99 


I  UK    INFLUENCE  OF  JOY 

much  in  the  physical  aspect.  It  is  cer- 
tain that  the  average  physician  in  taking 
at  random  and  only  once  or  perhaps  twice 
the  blood  pressure  of  a  patient,  is  running 
great  risk  of  being  misled  in  at  least  a 
tenth  of  the  cases,  and  from  that  ratio  up 
in  proportion  as  the  autonomic  nervous 
system  is  worried,  fatigued,  or  unstable, 
from  any  other  cause.1  As  we  shall  see, 
I  hi-  condition  is  just  the  negation  of  joy 
and  is  therefore  relevant  here.  Joy,  on 
the  other  hand,  and  happiness,  certainly 
make  for  a  firm,  sustained  blood  pressure, 
not  high,  but  higher  than  the  atonic  and 
depressed  condition  some  unpleasant  emo- 
tions exhibit. 

On  the  other  hand  it  seems  likely  that 

1  G.  V.  N.  Dearborn.  "The  Blood  Pressure  in  the  Leg  in 
Various  Positions;  the  Brachial  Pressure  after  Short  Maximal 
IMS;  and  the  Normal  Pressure  in  Physically  Trained  In- 
dividuals; With  an  Appended  Preliminary  Note  regarding  the 
Blood  Pressure's  Autonomic  Rhythm",  American  Phyrical 
Education  Review.  XX.  6,  337-35*.  and  7,  414-423.  (June  and 
October,  1915.)  The  "appended  note"  contains  a  suggestion 
that  the  blood  pressure  is  mysterious  yet,  and  a  generally  mis- 

lrn»liiitf  fad. 

100 


THE  INFLUENCE  ON  THE  CIRCULATION 

the  depressive  states  of  "  antijoy "  exert 
on  the  vasomotor  blood-pressure  rhythm 
some  sort  of  far-reaching  confusion  com- 
parable to  that  which  they  impose  upon 
the  digestive  rhythm  as  observed  by  Can- 
non and  others. 

As  for  acute  variations  in  blood  pressure 
in  affective  states,  the  author  is  at  present 
of    the    opinion    that    the    two    generally 
opposed    sides    of    the    emotional    balance 
act  for  once  similarly,  and  cause  a  rapid 
rise    of    pressure.     Thus   in    one   case   an 
^imaginary  kiss  caused  in  ninety  seconds  a 
»rise    of    at    least    twenty    millimeters    of 
•mercurial  pressure;    while  in  another  in- 
dividual a  suddenly  recalled  grief  raised  it 
in  less  time  thirty  per  cent  more  than  that. 
In  a  bright  girl  (A.  K.  B.)  of  thirteen  the 
chance  recollection  of   breaking  a  highly- 
valued  plate  belonging  to  her  mother  caused 
a  quick  rise  of  twelve  millimeters  in  the  arm- 
blood-pressure.      Office-readings   are    regu- 
larly higher  at  first  than  ten  minutes  later. 
101 


THE   INFLUENCE  OF  JOY 

I  have  seen  the  pressure  rise  from  one 
hundred  and  thirty-five  millimeters  to 
two  hundred  and  thirty  by  one  hundred 
and  fifty  seconds  of  breath-holding,  and 
in  the  same  man  (Dr.  J.  G.  S.)  have  seen 
it  fall  twenty -four  millimeters  below 
its  base  of  one  hundred  and  thirty-five 
in  a  few  minutes  by  voluntary  bodily  and 
mental  relaxation  after  the  useful  man  nor 
of  the  Hindus.  This  is  a  total  voluntary 
difference  of  one  hundred  and  nineteen 
millimeters  of  mercury  within  three  min- 
utes in  the  blood  pressure  of  a  normal  man. 
With  such  a  range  controllable  from  the 
voluntary  cortex  of  the  brain,  who  is 
going  to  deny  the  importance  of  this 
blood-pressure  factor  in  the  general  com- 
bined emotional  and  deliberate  control 
characteristic  of  the  invigorating  self- 
possession  of  joyous  behavior? 

On  the  other  hand,  anxiety  continued 
for  many  weeks  or  even  days  produces,  as 
already  hinted,  a  variability  in  the  blood 
10* 


THE  INFLUENCE  ON  THE  CIRCULATION 

pressure  which  I  have  named  its  autonomic 
rhythm,  and  which  is  now  under  investiga- 
tion in  the  institutions  where  my  research 
work  on  normal  people  and  on  the  nervous 
is  done.  I  have  almost  come  to  regard  a 
well-defined  rhythm  as  in  some  degree 
diagnostic  of  something  akin  to  an  anxiety- 
psychosis  in  the  individual.  It  is  obvious 
that  in  persons  with  brittle  arteries,  a  con- 
dition normal  to  advanced  life,  a  large 
variation  of  this  kind  might  endanger 
health  or  cause  death  from  apoplexy. 
Hack  Tuke,  already  referred  to  (page  80), 
cites  evidence,  very  appropriate  during 
this  the  Great  War,  to  indicate  the  prev- 
alence of  apoplexy  when  men  in  general 
are  anxious  or  otherwise  for  long  deeply 
troubled,  that  is,  joyless : 

" Doctor  Rush  in  his  essay  'On  the 
Influence  of  the  Revolution  upon  the 
Human  Body'  states  that  more  instances 
of  apoplexy  occurred  in  the  city  of  Philadel- 
phia in  the  winter  of  1774-1775  than  had 
103 


HIE  INFLUENCE  OF  JOY 

been  known  in  previous  years.  He  a 
4 1  should  have  hesitated  in  recording  this 
fact  had  I  not  found  the  observation  sup- 
ported by  a  fact  of  the  same  kind  and 
produced  by  a  nearly  similar  cause,  in  the 
Appendix  to  the  practical  works  of  Doctor 
Baglivi,  Professor  of  Physic  and  Anatomy 
at  Rome.  After  a  very  wet  season  in  the 
winter  of  1694-1695,  he  informs  us,  "apo- 
plexies displayed  their  rage;  and  perhaps 
some  part  of  this  epidemic  illness  was  owinjj 
to  the  universal  grief  and  domestic  cue 
occasioned  by  all  Europe  being  engaged 
in  a  war.  All  commerce  was  disturbed, 
and  all  the  avenues  of  peace  blocked  up, 
so  that  the  strongest  heart  could  scarcely 
bear  the  thoughts  of  it."  [Cf.  A.D.  I'M .•>.] 
The  winter  of  1774-1775  was  a  period  of 
uncommon  anxiety  among  the  citizens  of 
America.  Every  countenance  wore  the 
marks  of  painful  solicitude  for  the  event 
of  a  petition  to  the  throne  of  Britain,  which 
was  to  determine  whether  reconciliation, 
104 


THE  INFLUENCE  ON  THE  CIRCULATION 

or  a  civil  war,  with  all  its  terrible  and  dis- 
tressing consequences,  were  to  take  place. 
The  apoplectic  fit  which  deprived  the  world 
of  the  talents  and  virtues  of  Peyton  Ran- 
dolph, while  he  filled  the  chair  of  Congress, 
in  1775,  appeared  to  be  occasioned  in 
part  by  the  pressure  of  the  uncertainty  of 
those  great  events  upon  his  mind.  To  the 
name  of  this  illustrious  patriot  several 
others  might  be  added,  who  were  affected 
by  apoplexy  in  the  same  memorable  year/  ' 
Almost  every  reader,  if  he  hark  back 
over  his  observations  of  acquaintances, 
can  readily  recall  some  who  have  un- 
accountably died  soon  after  the  access  of 
a  vast  grief,  a  commercial  catastrophe, 
disgrace,  or  some  other  personal  disaster 
intense  enough  to  depress  more  or  less 
chronically  the  emotional  tone  and  make 
joy  impossible.  It  is  likely  that  a  majority 
of  such  victims  of  Nemesis,  if  not  all  of 
those  in  any  small  group,  "passed  on", 
as  they  who  avoid  the  word  death  would 
105 


Tin;  IMU  i:\ri;  or  JO1 

say,  from  conditions  of  the  same  gei 
nature  as  apoplexy,  —  oozing  of  blood  from 
perhaps  a  multitude  of  cerebral  arterinlcs 
thus  congesting  and  deranging  perhaps  a 
large  region  of  the  dominating  brain,  and 
leaving  the  vegetative,  impulsive  life  to 
unknown  impossibilities.  Such  mental 
attitudes  are  typical  opposites  of  that 
attitude  we  express  in  this  book  by  the 
more  or  less  symbolic  term  joy,  organic 
happiness. 

Robert  Burton  in  his  famous  "Anatomy 
of  Melancholy",  1652,  lends  good  advice 
for  the  cure  of  " melancholy "  under  which 
our  state  of  antijoy  would  be  included : 

"Mirth  and  merry  company  may  imi 
be  separated  from  music,  both  concerning 
and  necessarily  required  in  this  business. 
4 Mirth',  saith  Vives  (de  anima  te/ ///</, 
lib.  3),  'purgeth  the  blood,  confirms  health, 
causeth  a  fresh,  pleasing,  and  fine  colour', 
prorogues  life,  whets  the  wit,  makes  the 
body  young,  lively,  and  fit  for  any  manner 
106 


THE   INFLUENCE   ON   THE  CIRCULATION 

of  employment.  (Schola  Salern.)  The 
merrier  the  heart,  the  longer  the  life; 
'A  merry  heart  is  the  life  of  the  flesh', 
Prov.  XIV.  30;  'Gladness  prolongs  his 
days ',  Ecclus.  XXX.  22 ;  and  this  is  one 
of  the  three  Salernitan  doctors,  Dr.  Merry- 
man,  Dr.  Diet,  Dr.  Quiet,  which  cure  all 
diseases." 

The  cosmetic  values  cannot  indeed  be 
properly  ignored  in  this  connection,  for 
beauty,  one  of  Life's  fundamental  assets, 
has  as  much  to  do  with  the  blood  and  its 
distribution  as  with  the  nutritional  plump- 
ness and  so  on  of  the  tissues.  Of  all  cur- 
rent sophistry,  none  is  more  transparent 
or  worse  misleading  than  that  which  claims 
beauty  to  be  only  skin  deep.  To  physi- 
ology, knowing  of  the  unenvious  truth, 
beauty  is  as  deep  not  only  as  the  con- 
figuration of  the  skeleton,  the  muscle,  and 
the  fat  deposits,  but  as  the  heart  and 
adrenals  and  intestines  themselves.  The 
stheneuphoric  index  (see  page  198)  gets 
107 


THE   INFLUENCE  OF  JOY 

capital  indication  in  the  appearance  of 
one's  face  and  general  posture.  We  ha 
all  seen  in  the  faces  of  our  fell<>\v>  the 
crushing  or  the  crumbling  of  a  soul !  and 
the  finger  of  death  from  a  broken  heart 
or  mangled  life-hopes  or  shattered  coum 
writes  in  symbols  that  all  understand  (but 
which  it  were  hard  to  describe  and  in  detail 
account  for)  the  imminent  loosening  of  "  the 
silver  cord."  People  have  often  been  known 
to  "  grow  old"  in  a  month,  in  a  week,  in  a 
night. 

Tuke   quotes   from   a   letter   of   Doctor 
Boggs,   written   in   Paris   during   its   sic 
to  the  London  Lancet  and  dated  21  June. 
1871  : 

4 The  only  hope  of  the  Parisians  which 
they  fondly  cherished,  and  which,  in  a 
great  measure,  kept  them  alive  during  the 
siege  was  most  cruelly  blighted,  and  you 
may  imagine  their  disappointment  when 
the  capitulation  of  the  city  was  announced  ; 
the  mental  shock  to  some  was  such  tli 
108 


THE  INFLUENCE  ON  THE  CIRCULATION 

they  almost  lost  their  reason.  .  .  .  But  the 
most  remarkable  effect  of  the  siege  was  the 
aged  appearance  of  some  of  the  inhabitants ; 
men  and  women  alike  seem  to  have  passed 
over  at  least  ten  years  of  their  existence  in 
half  as  many  months.  A  friend  of  mine, 
a  distinguished  practitioner  in  this  city, 
nearly  fifty  years  of  age,  has  become  so 
gray  and  wrinkled,  and  such  other  changes 
have  taken  place  in  his  constitution,  as 
to  give  him  the  appearance  of  a  man  of 
sixty." 

Many  a  face  (and  head  and  figure),  we 
may  be  sure,  bears  the  plain  impress  of  the 
crisis  of  August,  1914.  These  things  are 
real  and  count  in  human  values.  We  must 
let  them  teach  us  what  they  can. 

Finally,  consider  that  nothing  in  the 
world  or  above  it  can  develop  vigor  and 
promptness  and  certainty  and  adapta- 
bility in  one's  circulatory  mechanism  (im- 
portant and  correlative  factor  in  all  our 
living  as  it  is  in  all  our  joy)  like  abundant, 
109 


Till:    INFLUENCE  OF  JOY 

gross,  outdoor  exercise,  —  the  richest  pi 
of  purely  bodily  activity.     We  shall  lm\r 
occasion  to  refer  to  this  again  in  our  few 
and    simple    therapeutic    suggestions    for 
those  who  seek  them. 


no 


CHAPTER  IV 
The  Influence  on  the  Nervous  System,  Etc. 

BEFORE  considering  this  influence  of 
joy  on  the  nervous  system,  a  clear 
understanding  of  one  matter,  at  once 
physiologic  and  psychologic  in  nature,  must 
be  attempted.  Its  physiological  difficulties 
must  neither  repel  nor  discourage  us,  chiefly, 
it  must  be  admitted,  because  we  shall 
leave  them  to  some  ingenious  future  phys- 
iologist to  explain!  The  matter  to  which 
we  refer  we  may  not  inappropriately  term 
the  affective  balance. 

No  modern  psychological  discussion  has 
been  more  widespread  in  range  or  less 
satisfactory  in  accepted  result  than  that 
concerning  the  real  nature  of  what  is  fre- 
quently termed  pleasure  and  pain,  includ- 
ing pleasantness  and  unpleasantness.  The 
111 


THE  INFLUENCE  OF  JOY 

reason  for  this  seems  at  least  twofold:  On 
one  hand,  some  psychologists  and  more 
philosophers  have  somehow  failed  to  ap- 
preciate the  modern  evidence  that  tin* 
problem  as  stated  of  old  is  not  in  reality 
one  problem  but  two,  very  different, 
namely,  that  of  pleasure  and  pain  and, 
second,  that  of  the  affective  balance  as  we 
have  called  it,  of  the  feeling  of  pleas- 
antness and  unpleasantness.  The  actual 
physiologic  evidence  may  not  be  presented 
here,  but  it  is  the  assumption  of  this  little 
book  that  pleasure  and  pain  are  separate 
sensations,  each  with  its  own  nerve  ap- 
paratus. Pleasure  and  pain  proper  are 
powerful  incentives  to  and  arousers  of 
emotion ;  and  often  are  casual  elements  of 
the  total  emotive  behavior  and  conscious- 
ness, just  as  are  sensations  of  smell  or  of 
heat  or  of  sound.  But  the  affective  bal- 
ance, the  feeling  of  pleasantness  or  of  un- 
pleasantness, certainly  is  an  integral  part 
of  the  emotional  phenomena,  however 
112 


INFLUENCE  ON  THE  NERVOUS  SYSTEM 

closely  it  may  be  masked,  and  moreover 
(especially  germane  to  our  present  pur- 
pose), it  serves  to  link  the  feelings  as 
physio-psychological  periods  to  the  general 
welfare  of  the  personality  with  an  inborn 
right  to  be  healthy  as  well  as  happy, 
happy  as  well  as  hale. 

No  one  has  formulated  the  most  ad- 
vanced point  of  view  of  the  individual  as 
a  conscious  and  dynamic  unit  better  than 
Harald  Hoffding  of  Copenhagen  in  his 
"Outlines  of  Psychology":  "The  unity 
of  mental  life  has  its  expression  not  only 
in  memory  and  synthesis  [the  "associative 
memory"  of  the  biologists],  but  also  in  a 
dominant  fundamental  feeling  character- 
ized by  the  contrast  between  pleasure  and 
pain,  and  in  an  impulse,  springing  from 
this  fundamental  feeling,  to  movement 
and  activity."  This  "dominant  funda- 
mental feeling  characterized  by  the 
contrast  between  pleasure  and  pain"  and 
this  "impulse  springing  from  this  funda- 
113 


THE  INFLUENCE  OF  JOY 

mental  feeling"  are  emphatically  the  key- 
notes of  the  recent  sciences  of  behavior 
and  of  psychotherapeutics,  and  relate  the 
personality  closely  to  its  dynamic  environ- 
ment, thereby,  to  a  degree,  explaining 
both. 

This  contrast  between  agreeableness 
and  disagreeableness  has  been  variously 
named,  and  is  often  spoken  of  when  the 
usage  is  unilateral,  as  the  emotional  tone 
or  the  feeling  tone.  The  most  recent 
expression,  perhaps,  is  affect,  but  this 
term  in  practice  leads  to  some  confusion 
with  the  familiar  word  effect;  its  use, 
however,  generally  is  expedient,  because  it 
tends  to  emphasize  the  theoretically  im- 
portant independence  and  substantiality 
of  the  emotional  tone,  pleasant  or  unpleas- 
ant, and  so  to  lend  it  the  due  value. 

The  various  feelings  (including  the  emo- 
tions)  may  be  arranged  roughly  in   throe 
groups    according    to    the    tones    of    i 
"dominant   fundamental  feeling",  and  if 
114 


INFLUENCE   ON  THE  NERVOUS  SYSTEM 


we  do  so,  we  have  a  table  like  that  which 
follows : 

THE  AFFECTIVE  BALANCE 


PLEASANT 

NEUTRAL 
OR  VARIABLE 

Joy            ] 

Indignation 

Anger     j  Emo- 

Contempt  1  Emo- 

Intoxication 

Surprise  J  tions 

Love           |  tions 

Magnanimity 

Awe 

Pride          j 

Mirth 

Cruelty 

Admiration 

Mockery 

Grewsomeness 

Arrogance 

Modesty 

Haste 

Audacity 

Recklessness 

Humility 

Avarice 

Recognition 

Indifference 

Benignity 

Repentance 

Malignity 

Condescension 

Satiety 

Pity 

Confidence 

Security 

Pusillanimity 

Courage 
Curiosity 

Self-love 
Self-satisfac- 

Defiance 

tion 

Desire 

Sensuality 

Disdain 

Sympathy 

Emulation 

Vanity 

Enthusiasm 

Veneration 

Esteem 

Vengeance 

Generosity 

Glory 

Greed 

Hope 

Impatience 

UNPLEASANT 


Emo- 
tions 


Fear 

Grief 

Hate 

Shame  J 

Anxiety 

Apprehension 

Chagrin 

Chill 

Cowardice 

Desolation 

Discord 

Discouragement 

Disgust 

Distrust 

Ennui 

Envy 

Irresolution 

Jealousy 

Misery 

Moroseness 

Nausea 

Regret 

Remorse 

Timidity 

Vertigo 

Weariness 


These  lists  include  all  the  separate  feel- 
ings which  I  could  find  and  they  are  as- 
sorted strictly  according  to  their  respective 
tones  of  pleasantness  or  unpleasantness  to 
the  individual  "having"  them.  Inspection 
of  the  three  lists  makes  it  obvious  that 
nearly  all  the  feelings  and  emotions  have 
115 


THi;   INFLUENCE  OF  JOY 

a  distinct  emotional  tone,  on  one  side  or 
the  other  of  the  great  balance  of  sentient 
experience,  which  above  all  others  whatso- 
ever divides  our  mental  world  --on  the 
one  hand  the  pleasant,  on  the  other  the 
unpleasant.  Moreover,  it  is  clear  from  in- 
spection of  the  two  longer  lists  that  the 
self-pleasing  feelings  in  general  represent 
a  larger  degree  of  activity  and  energy 
expenditure  than  do  the  unpleasing  feel- 
ings, which  suggest,  most  of  them,  limita- 
tion of  movement,  depression,  relative  in- 
activity. Conspicuous  apparent  exceptions 
to  this  principle  (which  I  have  elsewhere 
(hiistened  the  stheneuphoric  index)  are 
anger  and  hate  and  especially  fear.  But 
fear,  when  extreme,  is  actually  paralyzing 
in  its  depressive  influence.  Hate  and 
anger  are  true  exceptions  apparently,  for 
special  reasons  suggested  in  the  next  chap- 
ter, although  hate  is  not  inherently  and 
diaracteristically  an  activity-producing 
emotion  at  all. 

116 


INFLUENCE  ON  THE  NERVOUS  SYSTEM 

The  proper  biologic  standard  of  the 
bodily  aspects  of  emotion  are  to  be  seen 
only  in  the  relatively  uninhibited,  in  brutes 
namely,  and  infants,  and  low-grade  sav- 
ages, each  naive  in  his  own  way.  This 
matter,  so  essential  if  we  would  really 
understand  the  nature  of  emotion,  the 
author  has  already  set  out  in  a  little  mono- 
graph on  "The  Emotion  of  Joy",  1899. 
To  repeat  what  was  there  said : 

Pursuant  to  the  conditions  of  civiliza- 
tion and  in  particular  of  man's  necessary 
struggle  for  existence,  an  intricate  system 
of  restraints  and  artificial  restrictions  has 
been  gradually  and  inevitably  developed 
by  many  centuries,  how  many  no  man  dare 
say,  of  constantly  acting  motives  leading 
to  continually  deeper-fixed  modes  of  will- 
ing and  conduct.  Many  of  these  motives 
for  restraint  have  brought  about  habits 
which  are  in  effect  instincts,  and  so  numer- 
ous are  these  that  in  civilized  lands  it  is 
uncommon  to  find  any  emotion  expressed 
117 


THE  INFLUENCE  OF  JOY 

in  the  case  of  adults  in  that  perfection  of 
naturalness  which  elsewhere  and  among  wild 
animals  regularly  obtains.  In  the  infant 
the  restraining  process  is  begun  regularly 
in  its  earliest  months,  and  continues,  either 
by  deliberate  instruction  or  by  example  or 
else  imitatively,  through  life,  none  escaping 
wholly  and  few  in  any  considerable  degree 
from  the  all-mastering  force  of  this  ad- 
vantageous restraint  of  once-natural  bod- 
ily functions.  Even  the  domestic  animals 
display  something  of  this  universal  influ- 
ence. .  .  .  The  restraining  motives  are 
in  reality  complex  and  inter-involved  to  a 
degree  proportionate  to  the  social  intri- 
cacies from  which  they  have  arisen ;  we  can, 
however,  suggest  a  few  of  those  which  art 
directly  to  restrain  such  of  the  emotional 
expressions  as  would  be  manifestly  harm- 
ful to  some  degree  to  their  subject,  and 
some  of  these  are  here  listed,  as  applicable 
to  ten  of  the  commonest,  most  pronounced, 
and  well-defined  of  emotions : 
118 


INFLUENCE  ON  THE  NERVOUS  SYSTEM 

MOTIVES   FOR   BODILY   RESTRAINT 

Fear.  —  Desire  to  be  thought  brave. 
Disadvantage  of  displaying  fear  to  adver- 
sary. Better  power  of  defense  through 
muscular  and  other  bodily  control. 

Anger.  —  Knowledge  of  personal  and 
social  advantages  of  peace.  Habitual  po- 
liteness. Cowardice.  Policy.  Sympathy. 

Love.  —  Modesty.  Prudery.  Coyness. 
Honor. 

Grief.  —  Fear  of  ridicule.  Fear  of  pity. 
Modesty.  Resignation.  Vanity  (wrinkles). 
Policy.  Pride. 

Hate.  —  Advantages  of  peace.  Policy. 
Politeness.  Benevolence.  Cowardice.  Self- 
respect. 

Shame.  —  Pride.     Arrogance. 

Pride.  —  Fear  of  ridicule.  Policy. 
Politeness. 

Surprise.  —  Policy.      Politeness.     Pride. 

Contempt.  —  Cowardice.  Policy.  Pride. 
Sympathy. 

119 


THE  INFLUENCE  OF  JOY 

Jo//.  -  -  Dignity.  False  politeness.  Mod- 
esty. Policy.  From  reflection,  by  contrast, 
on  grief  and  pain.  Other-worldliness. 
Pessimism.  Vanity. 

From  such  reasons  for  restraint,  of  which 
these  are  but  a  few  cursory  examples,  it 
will  be  obvious  to  all  that  actual  objective 
behavior  is  not  an  adequate  criterion  of 
subjective  emotion.  It  is,  rather,  the  sym- 
bolic innervations  probably  which  count, 
even  though  they  lead  scarcely  even  to  an 
increased  tone  in  the  parts  of  the  ad  ion- 
system  which  they  supply. 

The  most  important  use,  perhaps,  served 
by  the  emotional  states  tabulated  a  few 
pages  before  is  that  it  makes  explicit  that 
a  contrast  does  in  general  exist  in  flic 
feeling-world,  with  joy  at  the  top  of  one, 
the  agreeable,  side,  and  terror  (paralyzing 
fear)  at  the  bottom,  so  to  say,  of  the  other. 
Our  next  discussion  will  concern  the  neural 
energetics  of  this  dominant  contrast,  of  the 
affective  balance,  and  will  attempt  to  e\- 
120 


INFLUENCE  ON  THE  NERVOUS  SYSTEM 

plain  the  mode  of  operation  of  the  affects 
on  the  nervous  system,  especially  that  of 
joy,  so  deep  at  the  foundations  as  well  as 
so  prominent  on  the  battlements  and  ban- 
ners of  the  human  castle  of  personality. 

THE  STREAM  OF  MiND1 


Attentive 
Consciousness 


Subconsciousness 


iiitteis 

' 


-    Unconsciousness 


1  The  figure  is  from  the  chapter  on  the  mental  process  in  the 
writer's  "Text-book  of  Human  Physiology."  Philadelphia  and 
New  York,  1908. 

121 


I  UK   INFLUENCE  OF  JOY 

The  great  pedagogical  usefulness  of  James's  famous  metaphor 
of  "tht  stream  of  cofMcioiUfidM"  has  not  been,  as  a  general  thing, 
fully  realized,  although  noticed  sufficiently  to  be  classed  by  some 
•gical  psychologists  as  one  of  the  "  Wundtian  myths  " ;  and 
fairy  stories  are  good  for  the  soul.  The  foregoing  sketch  may  repre- 
sent a  vertical  transverse  section  of  the  stream  called  Mind,  deep 
and  active  and  complex,  with  many  recondite  features.  Deter- 
mining the  direction  of  the  stream,  to  some  extent,  is  the  material 
ground,  but  this  latter  is  also  much  influenced  and  affected  by  the 
stream  through  it.  The  stream  itself  comes  from  some  place 
above  its  channel  and  ground,  but  is  inseparable  from  the  latter 
while  it  flows.  The  surface  of  the  stream  is  not  a  little  like  the 
ever-varying  film  of  attentive  consciousness,  cognisant  of  the 
heavens  above  and  of  the  earth  beneath,  and  with  a  continuity, 
however  diaphanous  and  variable.  Beneath  the  conscious  film 
is  the  subconsdousness,  and  this  constitutes  the  more  sob* 
stantial  "mass"  of  the  mental  stream  —  the  portion  which  has 
momentum  and  inertia  in  relation  to  the  material  conditions  of 
the  living  world.  In  its  "lower"  strata,  as,  indeed,  everywhere 
else,  the  subconsciousness  is  in  the  closest  relationship  with  the 
body,  and  fuses  with  it,  considered  as  *iuryy»  >n  the  neurility  of 
the  integrating  system.  The  subconsciousness  influences  and  is 
influenced  by  not  only  the  bodily  energism  but  by  the  at  t 
conscious  surface  above,  so  that  these  two  are  continually  in  the 
most  active  and  complex  reciprocity.  Midstream  at  the  bottom 
is  an  obstruction  to  the  flow,  and  this  (a  deformity  or  a  cancer, 
say)  influences  greatly  by  disturbance  both  the  subconsciousness 
and  the  consciousness  (as  well  as  the  body  itself)  by  mental  eddies, 
etc.  In  one  corner  of  the  stream-bed  is  suggested  a  hidden  and 
secret  cave,  into  which  the  subconsciousness  and  even  the  clear 
consciousness  may  at  times  flow  and  be  deranged  thereby ;  this 
is  the  "family  skeleton"  or  the  fixed,  bad,  instinctive  habit. 
Crawling  about  on  the  bottom  and  more  or  less  undermining  it 
and  roiling  the  water  are  extraneous  creatures  of  many  sorts,  all 
interesting,  but  frequently,  to  an  unfamiliar  understanding,  loath- 
some —  fixed  ideas,  obsessions,  vagaries,  eccentricities,  etc. 


INFLUENCE  ON  THE  NERVOUS  SYSTEM 

On  the  other  hand,  disturbance  of  the  mass  of  flowing  water 
itself  is  sure  to  disturb  more  or  less  permanently  the  "clay"  to 
which  it  is  so  closely  related.  We  have  thus  to  think  of  an  acute 
indigestion  from  anger,  or  cardiac  paralysis  from  fear  (only  that 
in  this  correspondence  the  theory  would  involve  a  franker  animism 
than  many  would  readily  accept). 

Various  qualities  and  conditions  of  the  stream  and  of  its  banks, 
the  "material"  body,  likewise  suggest  themselves.  For  example, 
we  might  usefully  compare  the  feeling-tone,  the  affect,  of  the 
subconscious  and  conscious  mental  stream  to  the  relative  tem- 
perature, color,  freshness  or  saltness,  clarity  or  roiliness,  etc., 
of  the  water  in  so  far  as  determined  by  its  own  nature  or  by 
its  confining  banks.  Its  momentum  and  its  speed  correspond 
somewhat  to  the  varying  impulse  to  activity,  its  dynamic  status. 
Its  varying  influence  by  the  breezes  or  the  gales  above  it,  sunlight 
or  moonlight  or  the  dimmest  starlight,  rippling  over  its  surface  only 
or  shining  boldly  into  its  depths,  represent  but  inadequately  some 
of  the  influences  that  come  from  Nature  into  our  wondrous  Life. 

The  whole  makes  an  Unity  whose  only  invariability  is  unend- 
ing change  —  yet  always  with  a  progress ;  but  whither,  as  whence, 
we  do  not  know. 


"Enthusiasm  is  the  thing  which  makes 
the  world  go  round.  Without  its  driving 
power  nothing  worth  doing  has  ever  been 
done.  Love,  friendship,  religion,  altruism, 
devotion  to  career  or  hobby,  —  all  these, 
and  most  of  the  other  good  things  in  life, 
are  forms  of  enthusiasm."  These  senti- 
ments, expressed  in  the  words  of  R.  H. 
Schauffler,  writing  in  the  Atlantic  Monthly, 
123 


THE    INFU  KM  K   OF  JOY 

suggest  the  burden  of  the  present  chaph  r. 
We  may  almost  summarize  this  c  hapter  in 
the  simple  statement  that  joy  greatly  in- 
creases and  sustains  the  operative  enthu- 
siasm of  the  nervous  system  and  of  its 
effectors,  the  muscles  and  the  glands. 
Our  task  now  is  to  tell  how. 

Unless  our  present  neurology  be  vain, 
an  inner  portion  of  the  brain,  the  "optic 
thalamus  ",  at  once  great,  receptive  depot 
of  sensory  influences  and  "center"  of 
emotional  reaction,  distributes  nerve  im- 
pulses to  the  entire  cortex  of  the  hemi- 
spheres, although  its  means  of  doing  so 
effectively  are  by  no  means  understood  as 
yet.  The  corpus  striatum  too,  another 
interior  brain  center  across  the  way  from 
the  thalamus,  now  known  to  be  the  regu- 
lator of  voluntary  muscular  tone,  must 
here  have  a  part,  and  in  this  respect  is 
probably  the  correlate  of  the  adrenal  me- 
dulla, whose  secretion  (adrenin),  as  we  have 
seen,  adapts  the  tone  of  the  vegetative 
1*4 


INFLUENCE  ON  THE  NERVOUS  SYSTEM 

mscle.  We  may  thus  think,  at  least 
^ntatively,  of  the  great  brain  cortex, 
imposed  of  nine  or  ten  billion  nerve 
mits,  or  "neurones",  as  in  continual 
sceipt  of  that  very  complex  mass  of  af- 
ferent or  at  least  of  ascending  influence 
rhich  represents  every  part  of  the  always 
loving  body,  and  which  we  term  cenes- 
.thesia  including  kinesthesia.  This  energy 
may  be  in  part  environmental,  sown  in 
the  "receptive  fields"  of  the  sense  organs 
and  coming  more  or  less  directly  from  them ; 
in  part,  however,  it  must  represent  fusion 
products  in  the  spinal  gray  matter,  and 
come  from  the  mutation  of  vital  energies 
in  the  body  itself  and  the  central  nervous 
system.1  In  these  matters  much  research 
is  needful  for  certainty,  but  the  probability 
in  general  seems  to  be  as  stated. 

On  this  hypothesis,  it  is  obvious  that 


1For   a  somewhat  new  view-point  see  G.  W.  Crile:    "The 
•  Kinetic  System"  in  his  "Origin  and  Nature  of  the  Emotions", 
Philadelphia  and  London,  1915. 


THK  INTU  i;\(  K  or  JOY 

the  cortex  with  its  billions  of  interknittc«l 
nerve  units  represents  the  nmfhig  place, 
so  to  say,  of  gladness  and  of  activity,  of 
rapidly  expending  energy  and  of  joy. 
Here  is  a  direct  influence  of  some  aspect 
or  other  of  bodily  and  mental  liveliness  or 
vivacity  on  the  pleasant  side  of  the  affect  ive 
balance,  since,  other  things  being  equal, 
unusual  activity  is  in  itself  a  delight.  The 
cortex,  then,  the  commonly  supposed  seat 
of  consciousness  because  of  its  preeminence 
in  integration,  becomes  the  direct  corre- 
lator of  activity  and  joy. 

But  more  explicitly  the  nerve-cell  bodies 
have  been  actually  seen  to  be  in  some  mode 
each  a  store  of  energy,  either  proprrly 
neural  or  nutritive  or  both.  This  has 
been  demonstrated  especially  by  Hodge, 
Dolley,1  Austin  and  Sloan,  and  by  others.2 

1D.  H.  Dolley.  "The  Morphologic  Changes  to  Nerve-Cells 
Resulting  from  Over-Work  to  Relation  with  Experimental 
Anemia  and  Shock  ".  Journal  of  Medical  RtMarch.  1910,  XVII. 
95-113. 

1  See  footnote,  page  142. 

1S8 


INFLUENCE  ON  THE  NERVOUS  SYSTEM 

Ample  nourishment  stands  on  the  one 
hand  for  good  humor,  other  things  equal, 
and  on  the  other  hand  for  plump,  normal 
nerve  cells  eager  for  action,  —  we  may 
almost  say  "enthusiastic."  But  fatigue 
means  fundamental  unpleasantness, 
shrunken,  depleted  nerve  cells,  and  a 
strong  tendency  to  bodily  and  mental 
rest ;  and  that  last  is  most  agreeable. 

This  general  subject  of  fatigue  is  an 
essential  one  in  our  present  purpose,  for 
in  probably  an  actual  majority  of  cases  it 
is  the  primary  condition  of  "antijoy." 
Many  have  been  misled  by  the  studies  of 
the  earlier  modern  physiologists  (Mosso, 
for  example)  on  "muscular  fatigue."  In 
the  actual  living  organism,  this  does  not 
occur  ordinarily,  for  it  is  one  of  the  func- 
tions of  the  nerve  cells  to  serve  as  a  com- 
plex safety  valve  for  the  body  and  mind 
and  especially  for  the  nervous  system  it- 
self, lest  they  become  unduly  tired  even  to 
exhaustion  ;  and  nutritional  depletion  is  not 
127 


Till:    INFLUENCE  OF  JOY 

quickly  repaired.  This  safety-valve  action, 
as  already  has  been  hinted,  brings  about 
discomfort,  then  weariness,  then  sleep!  n< 
under  fully  normal  conditions,  and  so  tends 
to  restoration.  Were  not  most  people  con- 
linuously  under  the  stimulation  of  caffein 
(from  tea  or  coffee),  theobromin  (from 
cocoa  and  chocolate  in  liquid  or  solid  forni\ 
or  nicotin  (from  tobacco),  this  natural 
resting-mechanism  would  be  seen  to  be 
far  more  efficient  and  more  nearly  universal 
in  its  action  than  it  appears  to  be  under 
present  restless  conditions. 

But  aside  from  the  omission  of  these 
three  chief  alkaloidal  principles  from  one's 
diet,  there  is  another  efficient  means  for 
securing  abundant  sleep  that  is  open  to 
all  who  are  not  already  beyond  its  use, 
namely,  gross  muscular  exercise,  especially 
tramping  and  skating  in  the  open  air 
and  swimming  in  the  open  water.  (Auto- 
mobiling  will  not  answer  the  require- 
ment.) Such  exercise  normally  fatigues 
128 


INFLUENCE  ON  THE  NERVOUS  SYSTEM 

at  least  two  thirds  of  the  entire  muscle- 
mass  of  the  body  and  thus  demands  sleep 
by  a  sensation  of  fatigue  which,  be  it 
noted,  is  a  distinctly  pleasant  experience, 
wholly  unlike  the  wretchedness  of  nerve 
fatigue  proper,  containing  elements  of 
nervousness.  • 

In  1913  C.  M.  Gruber  made  observations 
(presumably  under  Cannon's  direction) 
which  add  an  element  wholly  new  to  our 
physiology  of  fatigue  and  rest.  It  sup- 
plies one  more  function  to  this  seemingly 
very  versatile  and  puissant  secretion  that 
we  have  spoken  of  usually  as  adrenin. 
This  is  known  to  be  a  doubly  rotating 
substance  closely  related  chemically  to 
some  of  the  putrefactive  products  from 
meat.  This  last  is  a  fact  highly  sugges- 
tive, it  may  appear,  to  the  shouters  for 
consistent  vegetarianism,  for  it  may  have 
much  importance  in  explaining  the  lack  of 
initiative,  obvious  as  "Oriental  passivity" 
and  fatalism,  and  in  the  persisting  rela- 


Till:    INFLUENCE  OF  JOY 

tive  barbarism  or  worse,  in  races  of  long- 
standing vegetative  habit,  —  they  are  inert 
from  necessity,  it  appears,  not  from  choice. 
This  relatively  new  scientific  material 
on  the  physiology  of  adrenin,  supported 
by  ample  and  exact  work  on  the  irritability 
of  muscles  and  its  loss  and  recovery,  sho^ 
says  Cannon,1  that  the  substance  has  "a 
very  remarkable  action,  that  of  restoring 
to  a  muscle  its  original  ability  to  respond 
to  stimulation,  after  that  has  been  largely 
lost  by  continued  activity  through  a  long 
period.  What  rest  will  do  only  after  an 
hour  or  more,  adrenin  will  do  in  five  min- 
utes or  less/*  Applying  this  statement  in 
our  present  argument  for  the  continual 
expediency  of  good-humored  busy-ness,  t 
energetic  and  joyous  activity  of  mind  and 
of  body,  as  a  cure  for  dullness  of  spirit  of 
whatever  origin,  we  find  it  a  new  expla- 

1  For  the  privilege  of  making  this  quotation  from  "Bo- lily 
Changes  in  Pain,  Hunger,  Fear,  and  Rage*',  we  are  greatly  in- 
debted to  the  publishers  of  the  book.  D.  Appleton  &  Co. 

130 


INFLUENCE  ON  THE  NERVOUS  SYSTEM 

nation  of  the  general  pleasantness  of  emo- 
tional experiences,  however  fatiguing  on 
the  ordinary  basis  of  widespread  neuro- 
muscular  activity. 

Did  space  allow,  we  should  here  con- 
sider certain  organic  factors  of  the  theory 
of  music  that  are  not  yet  common 
knowledge  nor  even  enough  appreciated 
in  the  technical  science  of  music;  but 
the  consideration  of  these  must  be  post- 
poned to  a  possible  exposition  elsewhere. 
Just  here  it  must  suffice  to  point  out  how 
primary  and  how  universal  and  (usually) 
how  intense  is  the  joy  in  real,  that  is,  re- 
actionary, rhythmic  music,  and  that  too 
whether  it  come  from  the  single  series  of 
sounds  of  one  violin  or  from  the  mighty 
complexity  of  the  orchestra,  with  its  ninety 
or  more  instruments.  The  aberrations  of 
the  artificialists  pass  one  after  the  other 
and  are  forgot,  save  by  musical  historians, 
but  the  harmonies  that  penetrate  our 
brain  cortexes  and  by  that  door  our  glad- 
131 


THE  INFLUENCE  OF  JOY 

dened  souls,  which  make  our  muscles  throb 
and  dance  in  response,  be  it  even  a  "dead 
march"  or  a  requiem,  will  endure  forev 
and  rejoice  the  world.  In  such  music, 
joy  and  activity  (unless  artificially  inhibited 
on  the  common  principle  already  explained, 
see  pages  57,  126)  actually  coalesce,  and 
their  essential  identity  is  directly  observable. 

In  the  dance,  which  is  music  personified 
or  personality  musicized  (may  we  devise 
the  word),  as  one  pleases  to  state  it,  this 
identity  is  still  more  obvious  but  in  theory 
masked  by  sundry  extraneous  conditions 
of  dancing.  In  both  the  dance,  however, 
and  in  our  enjoyment  of  music  of  the 
strongly  rhythmic  kind,  the  kinesthelie 
and  cenesthetic  factor  is  obvious  enough, 
and  kinesthesia  is  the  kinetic  mental  index 
of  the  body's  general  activity. 

The  epithelium,  or  gland  tissue,  in  simi- 
lar way,  but  to  a  very  much  less  degree 
psychologically,  is  concerned  with  the  re- 
lations of  joy  to  the  nervous  system,  one 


INFLUENCE  ON  THE  NERVOUS  SYSTEM 

of  whose  "effectors",  in  the  fashionable 
neurology  of  the  day,  it  is.  The  reader 
need  only  observe  this  factor  of  his  or  her 
emotional  behavior  for  a  few  days,  to  ap- 
preciate the  part  played  by  the  digestive, 
mammary,  sexual,  sudoral,  and  lachrymal 
glands.  Secretory  adaptation,  as  we  have 
seen,  is  a  duty  of  the  autonomic  nerves. 

Here,  too,  to  be  systematic,  our  remarks 
on  the  proven  direct  relationship  between 
adrenin  and  the  action  of  the  sympathetic 
(see  page  13)  must  be  recalled,  especially 
the  circumstance  that  the  action  of  the 
concerned  nervous  system,  the  consequent 
contraction,  in  some  cases,  of  smooth 
muscle,  and  the  putting  forth  of  adrenin, 
are  all  indispensable  parts  of  the  one  and 
the  same  process  of  increasing  certain 
vegetative  activities.  The  adrenin,  then, 
like  the  dextrose  of  the  blood,  is  a  factor 
in  the  influence  of  pleasant  emotion  through 
the  agency  of  the  nervous  system. 

There  is  undeniably  a  strong  element 
133 


THE  INFLUENCE  OF  JOY 

of  autosuggestion  in  many  cases  of  con- 
tinued dissatisfaction  and  unhappiness, 
often  rising  to  an  obsession,  or  to  what 
^  I  <  >  r ton  Prince  l  terms  a  subconscious 
psychosis  occasioning  it  may  be  a  "fear- 
neurosis."  "Old  Chremes"  ("Heauton- 
tim",  I, 2)  reminds  us  that  "Parents,  friends, 
fortunes,  country,  birth,  alliance,  etc.,  ebb 
and  flow  with  our  conceit;  please  or  dis- 
please, as  we  accept  and  construe  them,  or 
apply  them  to  ourselves."  Of  course  auto- 
suggestion and  habit  really  are  frequent 
elements  in  contentment,  many  having 
fallen  into  this  slough  without  ever  realiz- 
ing they  are  there  and  many  others  without 
the  means  to  climb  out  or  the  psycho- 
therapeutic  friends  or  advisers  to  pull  them 
out.  Says  Prince  (page  368):  "It  is  ob- 
vious that  in  everyday  life,  when  by  argu- 
ments, persuasion,  suggestion,  punishment, 
exhortation,  or  prayer  we  change  the  view- 
point of  a  person,  we  do  so  by  building  up 

1  Morton  Prince,  "Tlic  Unconscious",  New  York,  1914. 
134 


INFLUENCE  ON  THE  NERVOUS  SYSTEM 

complexes  which  shall  act  as  settings  and 
give  new  meanings  to  his  ideas.  I  may 
add,  if  we  wish  to  sway  him  to  carry  this 
new  viewpoint  to  fulfillment  through  ac- 
tion, we  introduce  into  the  complex  an  emo- 
tion which  by  the  driving  force  of  its  impulses 
shall  carry  the  ideas  to  practical  fruition." 

The  ideal  emotion  for  this  purpose,  both 
as  a  matter  of  personal  pleasant  experience 
and  as  a  matter  of  scientific  theory,  in 
part  set  forth  in  this  book,  is  joy,  organic 
happiness. 

Both  through  the  psychology  of  interest 
and  by  its  own  physiologic  conditions,  it 
may  be,  gladness  makes  more  effective 
all  kinds  of  suggestion.  This  becomes, 
therefore,  a  plainly  important  matter,  how- 
ever far  from  plain  itself,  in  the  beneficial 
action  of  joy,  and  to  suggestion  we  may 
properly,  if  briefly,  turn  our  attention. 
Its  theory,  like  its  practice,  has  been  very 
largely  discussed  since  the  days  of  Braid 
and  the  early  hypnotists,  but  its  precise 
135 


THE   INFLUENCE  OF  JOY 

neurology  awaits  real  knowledge  of  the 
brain's  mode  of  action.  With  its  large 
practical  importance  in  many  directions 
of  life  no  one  can  for  a  moment  be  in 
dispute,  —  education,  therapeutics,  indus- 
trial publicity,  at  least,  are  already  greatly 
its  debtors.  Whatever  Eddyism  may  do 
toward  making  its  devotees  happier  and 
healthier  it  accomplishes,  it  is  likely, 
through  suggestion  and  a  habit  of  joyous- 
ness! 

On  the  perhaps  obsolete  theory  of  the 
human  cortex  which  maps  it  out  wholly  in 
horizontal  areas,  some  motor,  some  sen- 
sory, and  some  (entirely  because  they  arc 
electrically  irresponsive!)  "associative",  no 
satisfactory  theory  of  suggestion  is  at  hand. 
On  the  more  recent  embryologic  supposi- 
tions of  Brodmaiiii,  Kolton,1  etc.  (namely, 
that  the  architecture  of  the  cortex  should 


'  J.  S.  Bolton,  "A  Omt  ri!,,,t  i..n  to  the  Localisation  of  Cerebral 
Function,  Baaed  on  the  Clinioo- Pathological  Study  of   M 
Diaeaae".  Brain,  XXXIII.  1't.  139. 

136 


INFLUENCE  ON  THE  NERVOUS  SYSTEM 

be  considered  in  layers  from  without  in- 
ward rather  than  in  more  or  less  homo- 
geneous areas  side  by  side),  suggestion  has 
at  least  an  imaginable  neuronic  basis,  and 
its  close  relationship  to  pleasant  emotion 
as  well. 

It  will  be  recalled  that  the  two  logically 
opposed  yet  practically  complementary 
phases  of  the  individual  (vegetative  im- 
pulse and  voluntary  control)  have  been 
insisted  upon  as  a  fundamental  principle 
essential  in  most  psychological  discussions. 
In  the  case  of  suggestion,  this  opposition 
is  vital.  Ordinarily,  the  action,  "enthusi- 
asm" supplied  by  the  vegetative  mechan- 
ism (and  mentalized  by  the  lower  layers 
of  the  great  cortex,  perhaps  ?)  is  made  more 
rational  and  personally  adapted  by  the 
continuous  supervision  and  restraint  of 
the  personal  will  and  intelligence  and 
feelings.  In  suggestion,  on  the  other  hand, 
the  personal-control  apparatus  is  for  the 
time  in  abeyance,  oftentimes  by  deliberate 
137 


HIE  INFLUENCE  OF  JOY 

(OHM  nt  and  often  too  unconsciously,  but 
then  for  the  most  part  only  when  the 
"aura"  of  the  suggested  idea  or  behavior 
is  enjoyable,  at  least  to  a  slight  degree. 
Keatinge,1  in  his  admirable  work  on  peda- 
gogic suggestion,  notes  as  the  fifth  of  the 
required  characters  of  a  suggestive  idea 
that  it  fc< must  bring  pleasure  or  pain",  and 
most  of  the  conditions  of  successful  sug- 
gestion noted  emphasize  likewise  the  neces- 
sity  of  an  affect,  an  emotional  kick  or  tang, 
to  give  the  idea  vigorous  effectiveness. 
Suggestions  inherently  pleasant  furnish  di- 
rectly their  own  affect,  while  it  is  only 
under  conditions  where  fear  may  be  used 
as  a  threat  (as  in  an  English  boys9  school) 
that  the  unpleasant  suggestion  commonly 
exists  at  all.  Pleasantness  therefore,  it  is 
seen,  is  generally  a  conspicuous  part  of 
successful  suggestion  ;  it  may  even  be  not 

1  M.  W.  Keatinge,  "Suggestion  in  Education  ",  London,  1907. 
A  pioneer  book  to  which  there  should  be  many  successors,  for  it  is 
an  almost  un tilled  6eld. 

138 


INFLUENCE  ON  THE   NERVOUS  SYSTEM 

improperly  considered  one  of  its  inherent 
factors. 

Suggestion  then  is  the  more  or  less  im- 
pulsive determination  of  a  motive  through 
influence  exerted  on  the  associative  "re- 
sultants" of  the  cortex,  and  implies  a  less- 
ened control  from  the  more  purely  volun- 
tary and  personal  correlations  as  well 
usually  as  a  narrowing  of  the  field  of 
consciousness.  These  conditions  would 
seem  to  be  met  neurologically,  were  one 
bold  enough  to  suggest  it,  by  supposing  on 
the  Brodman-Bolton  idea  of  the  cortex  a 
strong  afferent  or  ascending  flood  of  neural 
influence  through  the  optic  thalamus  (emo- 
tional "center")  into  the  cortical  mid- 
layers  so  as  to  impair  somewhat  for  the 
time  the  personal  restraint,  with  the  sub- 
stitution therefor  of  partial  motor  control 
from  the  incoming  neurility.  Problems 
of  hysteria,  of  subconsciousness,  and  of 
Freudian  suggestion,  sublimation,  and 
submersion  would  seem  to  be  easier  of 
139 


'I  Hi:    IM'l.t  KNCE  OF  JOY 

understanding,  should  ever  this  neural 
basis  be  generally  certified. 

Already  we  have  noted  briefly  the  con- 
ditioned secretory  reflexes  (page  76)  <li>- 
red  in  a  way  and  described  by  Pavlov. 
The  matter  conies  into  th<»  present  con- 
nection as  a  demonstration  for  the  use  of 
all  and  sundry  of  the  ease  with  which  even 
the  most  arbitrary  and  unnatural  associ- 
ations are  developed  and  fixed  even  in  the 
least  voluntary  parts  of  the  nervous  system. 
During  the  last  year  Watson,1  psychologist 
at  Johns  Hopkins,  has  demonstrated  not 
only  how  readily  such  senori-secretory  com- 
plexes are  created  and  fixed  in  man,  but 
also  that  the  same  enlightening  facility 
belongs  likewise  to  the  motor  reflexes  (as 
well  as  to  the  secretory). 

Such  work  is  making  the  framework  of 
the  subconscious  mind  so  solid  and  sub- 
stantial, so  plain  and  obvious,  that  no 

1J.  B.  Watson.  "The  Place  of  the  Conditioned  Reflex  in 
Psychology",  Psychological  Review,  XXIII,  *,  March,  1916. 

140 


INFLUENCE  ON  THE  NERVOUS  SYSTEM 

old-fashioned  psychologist,  even  one  who 
still  limits  mind  to  consciousness,  can 
cavil.  For  the  sufferer  from  bad  habits 
of  emotion,  "temperament",  worry,  neu- 
rasthenia, "antijoy",  all  this  work  must  in- 
evitably serve  as  a  rock  of  salvation,  so  that 
no  one  of  them  henceforward  can  doubt  that 
his  relief  lies  in  his  own  personal  persistence 
in  the  effort  to  be  renewed. 

Thus,  even  in  such  sketchy  and  utterly 
inadequate  outline,  pleasant  emotion,  or- 
ganic happiness,  is  seen  indubitably  to 
further  the  all-essential  functions  of  the 
nervous  system  in  its  work  of  integrating 
the  parts  of  the  body  and  the  body  as  a 
whole  with  its  ever-changing  spiritual  and 
material  surroundings.  To  any  one  familiar 
with  the  supremacy  of  this  integrating 
fabric  of  energy  paths  in  the  individual 
organism,  this  phase  alone  of  joy's  influ- 
ence were  almost  enough  to  show  its  prac- 
tical value  in  our  life.  But,  as  we  have 
seen,  the  musculatures,  both  voluntary 
141 


THE  INFLUENCE  OF  JOY 

and  vegetative,  are  part  and  parcel,  func- 
tionally speaking,  of  the  nervous  system, 
and  so  are  all  the  glands.  Thus  almost 
the  entire  mechanism  of  efficiency  directly 
benefits  by  the  "enthusiasm"  which  good 
humor  and  happiness  involve,  and  it  is 
this  mechanism  which  at  once  conditions 
and  makes  possible  the  progressive  per- 
sonality of  man  and  woman. 

Professor  C.  Judson  Herrick,  "An  Introduction  to  Neurol- 
ogy/* Philadelphia  and  London.  1915,  is  judged  to  be  the  best 
book  on  neurology  for  laymen  so  far  published. 


w 


CHAPTER  V 
The  Love-Life 

E  are  authoritatively  told  that 
"the  Lord  loveth  a  cheerful 
giver  ",  and  surely  love  is  the 
very  index  of  generosity,  and  love  and 
joy  are  so  closely  interwoven  that  normal 
life  forever  must  be  full  of  wonderment, 
and  of  a  degree  of  admiration  which  merges 
into  active  gladness.  De  Morgan  puts  it 
well:  "All  is  not  Vanity,  preach  whoso 
might !  So  long  as  Love  itself  —  the 
mystery  of  all  mysteries  —  shall  remain 
unsolved,  there  is  an  immeasurable  music 
beyond  the  'octave-stretch  forlorn'  of  our 
fingers,  an  unfathomable  ocean  beyond  our 
little  world  of  pebbles  on  the  shore."  And 

"  Think,  when  our  one  soul  understands 
The  great  Word  which  makes  all  things  new, 
143 


TIII-:  INTUTAC  i:  OF  JOY 

When  earth  breaks  up  and  heaven  expands, 

How  will  the  change  strike  me  and  you 
In  the  house  not  made  with  hands? 

44  Oh,  I  must  feel  your  brain  prompt  mine. 

Your  heart  anticipate  my  heart, 
You  must  be  just  before,  in  1 

See  and  make  me  see,  for  your  part, 
New  depths  of  the  divine  ! 

"  But  who  could  have  expected  this 

When  we  two  drew  together  first 
Just  for  the  obvious  human  bliss, 

To  satisfy  life's  daily  thirM 
With  a  thing  men  seldom  miss  : 

[ROBERT  BROWNING.] 

"Love  watcheth",  we  find  in  "The- 
Imitation  of  Christ  ",  "and,  sleeping,  sluni- 
bereth  not.  Though  weary,  love  is  not 
tired  ;  though  pressed,  it  is  not  straitened  ; 
though  alarmed,  it  is  not  confounded ;  but 
as  a  lively  flame  and  burning  torch,  it 
forces  its  way  upwards,  and  securely  passes 
through  all.  If  any  man  love,  he  knowrth 
what  is  the  cry  of  this  voice." 
144 


THE   LOVE-LIFE 

No  one  in  the  world  has  more  beautifully 
or  strongly  stated  still  another  aspect  of 
love  than  E.  R.  Sill: 

"  A  troop  of  babes  in  Summer-Land, 

At  heaven's  gate,  —  the  children's  gate  : 
One  lifts  the  latch  with  rosy  hand, 

Then  turns,  and  dimpling,  asks  her  mate  — 
'  What  was  the  last  thing  that  you  saw  ?  ' 

4 1  lay  and  watched  the  dawn  begin, 
And  suddenly,  through  the  thatch  of  straw, 

A  great,  clear  morning-star  laughed  in.' 

*  And  you  ?  '     'A  floating  thistle-down 

Against  June  sky  and  cloud-wings  white.5 

*  And  you  ? '     'A  falling  blow,  a  frown  — 

It  frights  me  yet ;  oh,  clasp  me  tight ! ' 

*  And  you  ?  '     *  A  face  through  tears  that  smiled  — ' 

The  trembling  lips  could  speak  no  more, 
The  blue  eyes  swam,  the  lonely  child 
Was  homesick,  even  at  heaven's  door."  l 

With  such  a  variety  of  aspects  of  love 
(and  self-love  is  not  represented)  and  each 
plainly  a  delight  not  only  to  the  lover  but 

JFor  permission  to  quote  this  poem  we  are  indebted  to  the 
publishers  of  Mr.  Sill's  poems,  Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Co.,  Boston. 

145 


TIII:  IM  u  i;\(  i,  or  JOY 

in  general  also  to  the  loved,  the  close  re- 
lationship of  joy  to  this  one  other  founda- 
tion  of  our  living  scarce  needs  exposition. 
And  yet  there  are  some  special  consider- 
ations  to  be  noted,  even  though  love  is 
known  by  all  to  be  the  very  quintessence  of 
joy. 

One  of  these  things  is  that  joy  is  also  the 
very  quintessence  of  love,  in  that  it  stands 
for  satisfaction,  is  indeed  satisfaction  per- 
sonified. Just  as  body  reduced  to  its  ulti- 
mate material  terms  is  motion,  and  mind 
reduced  to  its  ultimate  mental  terms  is 
experience,  so  joy,  gladness,  delight,  hap- 
piness, rapture,  pleasure,  bliss  thus  reduced 
is  satisfaction.  This  concept  can  be  sim- 
plified no  further  save  by  the  make-shift 
of  saying  that  it  is  wished  for  by  every 
one  under  normal  conditions ;  that  all 
animals  wish  it  in  some  or  other  of  its  as- 
pects. Love  includes  every  phase  of  that 
desirable  experience.  It  is  to  be  especially 
noted,  however,  Jthat  frequently  pain  and 
146 


THE  LOVE-LIFE 

even  agony  give  keen  satisfaction,  as  for 
example  to  the  mother,  to  the  martyr, 
and  to  the  hero,  at  times. 

But  pain  which  is  continuous  for  long 
breaks  the  courage  inevitably  through  ner- 
vous depression  which  in  turn  has  its  basis 
in  neuronal  depletion.  In  hysteria,  con- 
ditions less  organic  produce  much  less 
injury  to  the  personality. 

But  our  proper  topic  in  this  chapter  is 
more  expediently  the  practical  love-life 
of  the  everyday  round,  —  the  love-life  of 
sweethearts  married  or  only  betrothed,  of 
parents  and  children,  of  brothers  and  sis- 
ters, of  lifelong,  intimate  friends.  Nothing 
in  this  great  world  is  sadder  than  the  occa- 
sional mortal  who  would  have  these  but 
has  them  not.  Children  no  longer,  in 
civilized  lands  at  least,  have  to  lead  years 
of  loneliness  and  wretchedness,  for  the 
universal  process  of  association  soon  gives 
them  at  least  a  vicarious  love  for  those 
with  whom  society  bids  them  live;  but 
147 


Tin:  I\TU  i:\ri:  OF  JOY 

old  people  and  folk  who  are  growing  old 
alone  still  suffer  more  than  they  should  for 
lack  of  love  and  thereby  of  joy,  haunted 
by  the  joys  that  have  been  and  are  for 
them  no  more.  Next  to  the  abused  and 
neglected  child,  cold  and  hungry,  the  most 
joyless  thing  on  earth  is  the  lonely  old 
woman  or  old  man,  whether  rich  or  poor. 

On  the  other  hand,  as  we  look  about,  on 
the  opposite  side  of  the  art  gallery  of  life, 
the  paintings  and  the  sculpture  are  more 
joyous.  The  dominant  picture  is  the  nor- 
mal family,  at  first  two,  and  then  three, 
four,  five,  six,  or  more.  Here's  joy  typified, 
at  first  partly  selfish,  although  in  the  guise 
of  loving  the  other,  but  gradually  sub- 
limating itself  or  being  sublimated  and 
transferred,  rejuvenated,  into  the  next 
generation. 

And  here  are  we  at  another  of  the  deep 

secrets  of  the  nature  of  joy :    its  continual 

close  alliance  sometimes  with  actual  youths 

and  always  with  youthfulness,  whose  very 

148 


THE  LOVE-LIFE 

spirit  joy  is.  The  Preface  essentially  "says 
my  say"  in  this  particular,  and  it  need  not 
be  repeated :  the  adult  is  not  properly 
superior  to  the  child  any  more  than  man  is 
to  woman,  —  only  different ;  equivalent, 
though  not  equal.  But  "middle  age"  (and 
that  usually  indicates  about  two-thirds 
age)  has  no  other  task  to  do  in  the  years 
to  come  more  essential  than  Rejuvenation. 

The  rejuvenation  that  is  referred  to  is 
not  the  cosmetic  process,  external  or  at 
least  no  farther  internal  than  the  molar 
teeth;  it  is  not  the  systematic  endeavor 
of  good  dear  Grandma  to  recall  herself  at 
the  joyous  age  of  twenty;  "the  man  with 
the  broken  ear  ",  about  which  About  tells 
us,  was  far  more  successfully  restored ! 
The  rejuvenation  intended  is  that  kind  of 
living  (not  thinking)  backwards  which 
brings  real  joy,  and  not  its  pretense,  into 
the  heart  and  brain  and  muscles,  lending 
them  years  additional  of  life. 

If,  as  is  likely,  we  may  accept  Minot's 
149 


Till-    INFU TACK   OF  JOY 

dictum  that  rejuvenation  depends  on  the 
increase  of  the  nuclei  of  body  cells,  pri- 
marily organs  of  reproduction,  the  pro- 
duction of  offspring  even  in  technical  bio- 
logic terms  is  a  process  by  which  the 
parents  tend  to  become  young  again.  Psy- 
chologically the  principle  holds  quite  as 
well,  and  our  children,  our  normal  "  nuclear 
increase  ",  lead  us  back,  if  we  are  wise  and 
natural,  to  Halcyon,  the  telluric  land  of  hap- 
piness. Without  children,  the  love-life  of 
the  really  normal  man  and  woman  is  apt  to 
be  at  first  (after  the  novelty  of  the  new 
association  has  inevitably  worn  away)  only 
an  empty  but  wistful  shadow  of  content- 
ment which  later  sometimes  withers  into  a 
specter,  if  not,  as  more  of  the  years  go  by, 
into  an  ogre,  a  were- wolf,  a  lonely  honor 
unpleasant  to  contemplate.  This  rejuve- 
tnitimi  of  one  generation  by  int  with 

the  next  is  a  matter  of  much  practical 
importance  too  little  cultivated. 

Not  only  as  a  means  of  joy,  proper,  but 


THE  LOVE-LIFE 

as  an  incentive  to  far  greater  physical  ac- 
tivity, is  this  particular  phase  of  the  love- 
life  greatly  of  import  in  the  practical  life 
of  parents.  This  need  not  be  only  a  pleas- 
ing picture  dear  to  the  poets,  the  para- 
graphers,  and  writers  of  booklets  on  hap- 
piness, but  it  may  be  made  a  most  useful 
and  profitable  element  of  the  parents' 
life  because  it  serves  not  only  to  make 
happier  the  years  as  they  pass  but  also  to 
make  them  more  numerous,  to  lengthen 
life  by  postponing,  under  the  influence  of 
enthusiasm  and  effective  happiness,  the  in- 
evitable sclerotic  process.  These  are  real 
things,  not  ghosts,  a  perfectly  practicable 
procedure  of  a  father  or  mother  at  thirty- 
five  or  at  forty  to  do  himself  or  herself 
good,  morally,  mentally,  and  physically, 
and  meanwhile,  under  good  conditions,  to 
be  giving  the  child  an  ideal  start  in  life. 
Berle  1  has  developed  the  theoretic  possi- 

1  A.  A.  Berle,  "The  School  in  the  Home",  New  York,  1912; 
and  "Teaching  in  the  Home",  New  York,  1915.    These  are 

151 


THE  INFLUENCE  OF  JOY 

hilities  of  this  association  of  parents  and 
children  farther  than  most  writers,  but  has 
naturally  emphasized  the  education  of  the 
children  more  than  the  rejuvenation  and 
the  happiness  of  the  parents.  John  Locke, 
Witte,  Sidis,  Wiener,  Stoner,  Bruce  are 
other  writers  of  well-known  books  aimed 
in  the  same  significant  direction. 

From  whatever  angle  we  may  view 
rejuvenation,  few,  God  be  thanked  !  can 
miss  sympathy  with  the  brief  song  of  "a 
Harvard  man 

44  Dreams  that  the  heart  doth  hold 

Shall  the  later  years  forget  ? 
Days  of  the  drifted  gold, 

Shall  you  fade  and  wane  and  set  ? 
Let  the  moon  grow  cold,  let  the  stars  grow  old, 
But  stay  ye  a  little,  yet 

outlines  of  a  system  extremely  vital  for  education,  especially  if 
integrated  with  developed  playground  work  and  with  basal 
principles  of  sense- train  ing  such  as  Seguin  and  Montessori  have 
suggested.  Along  this  pleasant  highway  surely  lies  the  inevitable 
educational  reform. 


152 


EPITOME 

The  five  preceding  chapters  have  at- 
tempted to  make  fairly  understood  the 
scientific  interdependence  of  emotion  in- 
herently pleasant  and  of  vigor  in  the  basal 
physiologic  functions,  —  namely,  nutrition, 
circulation,  coordination,  and  reproduction. 
In  doing  this,  be  it  noted,  we  have  not 
catered  unduly  to  the  agreeable  fashion 
of  repeating  interesting  and  numerous 
actual  instances  (many  volumes  of  them 
are  at  hand),  but  for  the  most  part  have 
discussed  principles,  however  superficially 
and  fitfully. 

Without  being  explicit  at  any  point,  a 
real  and  firm  ground  in  all  this  material, 
so  far,  of  "words,  words,  words"  (Shake- 
speare), is  the  fact  that  primitive  gladness 
is  properly  a  food  to  personality,  rather  than 
153 


TIIK    1NTMKNCE  OF  JOY 

a  stimulant.  This  opposition  and  diiFer- 
ence  is  important  in  physiology,  and  both 
fundamental  and  far-reaching.  In  my 
longer  lecture-course  in  the  physiology  of 
exercise,  we  are  in  the  habit  of  considering 
and  of  discussing  stimulants  (as  part  of 
tin*  important  work  in  dietetics)  in  two 
classes:  The  natural  stimulants  are  chiefly 
bodily  exercise,  joy,  lean  meat,  cocoa, 
coffee,  and  tea,  and  the  unnatural  and 
more  artificial  stimulants  alcohol  (properly 
a  depressant,  and  stimulating  only  because 
it  poisons  and  so  checks  certain  inhibi- 
tions), tobacco,  and  certain  drugs,  such  as 
cocaine,  strychnin,  hashish,  and  opium. 
Inspection  shows  that  two  thirds  of  the 
more  natural  stimulants  ace  also  foods; 
for  tea  and  coffee  feed  the  nerve  cells,  it  is 
now  likely,  or  at  least,  serve  as  < •hromatin- 
sparers.  Certainly  joy  and  its  close 
kindred  physical  exercise  are  the  mo-t 
natural  of  all  the  stimulants,  and  F£rc  in 
1901  demonstrated  the  largely  sthenic  in- 
164 


EPITOME 

fluence  of  bodily  exercise  on  the  organism's 
actual  working  power,  so  that  we  know 
that  exercise  at  least  is  a  true  stimulant. 
Bodily  activity,  if  thus  shown  to  be  both 
a  natural  and  an  efficient  stimulant  to 
life,  certainly  wins  the  same  potency  for 
gladness;  for  gladness,  joy,  pleasant  en- 
thusiasm, are  but  the  other  aspects  of 
normal  organic  alertness,  vivacity,  and 
efficient  action. 

Both  bodily  activity  and  organic  happi- 
ness are  other,  names  for  "holiday",  pro- 
vided the  action  be  of  such  a  nature  rela- 
tive to  the  agent  that  it  is  relaxation  from 
the  deadly  strenuosity  of  our  present  rest- 
less mode  of  living  which  kills  multitudes 
before  their  natural  time. 

But  as  we  have  said,  joy  is  food,  not  only 
a  stimulant :  it  supports  while  it  urges  on. 
It  is  almost  as  if  the  old  Roman  farmer 
had  used  as  an  ox-goad  ("stimulus")  not 
a  single  sharpened  piece  of  iron  held  in  a 
handle,  but  an  ever-renewed  succulent 
155 


TIIK    INFLUENCE  OF  JOY 

stalk    of    sugar    cane    which    the    patient 
animal  was  allowed  forthwith  to  eat,  tin 
helping  to  make  him  both  strong  and  ac- 
tive,   contented    and    comely.     And    cer- 
tainly it  is  true  in  the  long  life-run,  and 
perhaps,  who  knows?   also  in  the  timeh 
lime   to   come    thereafter,    that    the 
victory  of  life  as  well  as  the  victory  over 
death   goes  to   the   Happy,   especially    to 
the  appreciatively  happy,  above  all  others. 
The  best  that  is  is  theirs,  be  their  every 
other  condition  whatsoever  it  may. 


156 


PART  TWO 
THE  NECESSITY  OF  JOY 


CHAPTER  VI 
Work  and  Play 

WE  have   built  our  little   bridge 
out    of    such    materials    as   we 
had,   and   even   if    it   be   a  bit 
shaky,  or  at  least  swaying  to  the  breeze, 
we  shall  venture  to  pass  over   it,  as  we 
safely   may,   to   live    on    the    other    side. 
Even  as  we  land,  we  read 


of 


JOY  is  A  REFLEX  OF  THE  NORMAL 
LlFE-ACTIVITY,  AND  THEREFORE 
AN  OBLIGATION.  LEAVE  INDO- 
LENCE BEHIND,  ALL  YE  WHO 
WOULD  ENTER  HERE. 

BY  AUTHORITY. 


159 


THE  INFLUENCE  OF  JOY 

Above  all  else  indeed    (the  present 

\a\  contends)  is  this  "slogan"  char- 
acteristic of  the  life  of  Joy  land.  Surely 
it  is  as  old  as  written  wisdom  and  as 
trite  as  advice,  yet  surely  too,  nothing  in 
the  whole  long  run  of  human  living  has  a 
more  timely,  necessary  force  than  it.  In- 
dolence is  in  some  respects  the  worst  of 
crimes  the  normal  adult  can  commit 
against  himself.  But  how  misleading  is 
the  etymology  of  the  term  itself!  Trench, 
quoted  in  Webster's  Dictionary,  also  notes 
this:  "As  there  is  a  greal  truth  wrapped 
up  in  'diligence',  what  a  lie  [sic]9  on  the 
other  hand,  lurks  at  the  root  of  our  pres- 
ent use  of  the  word  ' indolence'!  This 
is  from  'in*  and  'doleo',  not  to  grieve; 
and  indolence  is  thus  a  state  in  which  we 
have  no  grief  or  pain :  so  that  the  word 
as  we  now  employ  it  seems  to  affirm  that 
indulgence  in  sloth  and  ease  is  that  which 
would  constitute  for  us  the  absence  of  all 
pain."  Certainly  the  word  "lie"  is  most 
160 


WORK  AND  PLAY 

appropriate  and  exact,  whoever  in  the 
past  started  its  present  connotation.  It 
suggests  early  Italian  or  French  aristoc- 
racy when  at  its  falsest,  a  life-model  as 
far  from  the  wholesome  ideal  of  active  and 
really  thoughtful  modern  men  and  women 
as  pain  is  from  pleasure.  This  change  is 
a  hopeful  sign,  even  if  only  temporary,  of 
recent  years,  —  the  indolent  dude  and  the 
idle  millionaire  are  no  longer  respected  by 
thinking  men  or  women.  And  popular 
disrespect  and  scorn,  if  they  be  unanimous 
and  lasting  enough,  are  sure  to  make  any- 
thing whatever  unfashionable. 

The  psychobiologic  basis  of  this  obli- 
gation to  be  continually  active  and  thereby 
content  if  not  joyous,  already  has  been 
set  forth,  and  so  needs  only  brief  summary 
here.  Deepest  at  its  roots  lies  the  principle 
that  it  is  use  which,  by  "vasomotion",  reg- 
ulates the  blood  supply  to  any  active  part, 
so  that  disuse,  absolute  or  relative,  means 
a  proportionate  degeneration  of  the  mech- 
161 


THK    INFU  KNCE  OF  JOY 

concerned.  Moreover,  owing  to  the 
universal  action  of  habituation,  activity 
of  any  sort  which  is  not  somewhat  enlarged 
or  at  least  maintained  continuously,  tends 
to  lose  its  conscious  voluntary  aspect  and 
to  degenerate  into  a  mechanical  and  so 
less  joyous  process.  Lastly,  for  our  pn 
ent  discussion,  activity  makes  the  nutri- 
tive draft  move  more  rapidly,  and  in 
consequence  the  vital  fires  burn  more 
enthusiastically.  Elsewhere  I  have  ex- 
pressed this1  and  explained  it  as  a  rai>in<r 
of  the  plane  of  mctal>oli<-  efficiency.  Volun- 
tary or  "personal"  bodily  action  involves 
mental  activity,  just  as  the  latter,  for 
modern  psychology,  in  a  sense  depends  on 
bodily  functioning,  namely,  on  that  of  the 
neuro-musculo-glandular  apparatus  which 
by  any  one  of  eight  or  ten  media  might 
express  the  psychic  intentions  embraced. 


IG.  V.  N.  Dearborn,  "A  Syllabus  of  the  Physiology  of 
Exercise"  (about  sixty  thousand  words),  3d  ed.,  Cambridge, 
1916. 

162 


WORK  AND  PLAY 

In  the  long  run  it  is  activity,  one's  effort 
and  worth,  that  count  and  not  often  chance. 
An  epigrammarian  would  tell  us,  as  the  re- 
sult of  much  actual  experience,  that  "  four- 
leaved  clovers"  do  not  hide,  but  are  as  easily 
seen  when  found  as  their  trifoliate  sisters. 
Fortuna's  dice  are  not  loaded,  surely;  but 
neither  are  Baalzebub's. 

Activity,  then,  "of  both  mind  and  body", 
adapted  to  the  individual  needs  in  quantity 
and,  to  a  less  degree,  in  quality,  is  a  sub- 
stantial biologic  need  and,  in  the  long 
run,  a  biologic  necessity.  In  approximate 
terms,  the  more  general  the  activity  is  and 
the  freer,  the  less  restrained,  the  more 
satisfaction  or  contentment  or  actual  joy 
pervades  it,  for  then  the  greater  is  the 
"rejuvenation."  Such  activity  or  vivac- 
ity is  indeed  a  true  biologic  need  and  one 
that  nothing  whatever  can  possibly  re- 
place. 

Indolence  and  idleness,  however,  are 
not  only,  so  to  speak,  negatively  un- 
163 


THE  INFLUENCE  OF  JOY 

pleasant  by  the  deprivation  of  the  joy  of 
activities,  but  positively  unpleasant  by 
inherent  reasons  of  physiology  and  psy- 
chology. Indolence,  in  short,  is  actually 
fatiguing  and  therefore  really  unpleas- 
ant, especially  to  one  who  has  experienced 
its  opposite.  This  unpleasantness  we  of 
course  term  ennui,  tedium,  or  boredom, 
or,  very  closely  allied,  disgust.  Few  states 
of  mind  and  body  have  in  them  more  real 
misery  of  the  common  sort,  and  there  is  no 
degree  of  wretchedness  that  drives  so  many, 
of  their  own  free  act,  beyond  the  Great 
Divide.  I  believe  it  to  be  one  of  man- 
kind's worst  enemies  and  all  the  worse 
because  always  wholly  needless.  Were  not 
the  large  majority  of  us  actually  obliged 
to  toil  for  livelihood,  it  would  be  of  far 
greater  importance  still  as  an  economic 
problem  of  humanism.  As  it  is,  ennui 
continuously  fatigues  and  worries  thou- 
sands, many  of  whom  do  not  know  what  it 
is  that  keeps  them  unhappy,  "with  every- 
164 


WORK  AND  PLAY 

thing  to  make  them  happy"  —  save  them- 
selves, outcasts  from  the  Kingdom  of 
Happiness  who  have  been  condemned  by 
a  false  understanding  of  the  true  values 
of  the  common  life.  Like  most  other 
things,  sooner  or  later  this  form  of  misery 
reduces  itself  to  the  lowest  terms  of  un- 
fitness  of  some  kind,  unintelligence  or 
"abulia",  either  in  the  individual  or  in 
others  on  whom  in  some  way  he  has  been 
or  is  dependent.  In  other  words,  so  often 
heard,  "the  mills  of  the  gods  grind  slowly, 
but  they  grind  exceeding  fine." 

"Though  no  checks  to  a  new  evil  appear, 
the  checks  exist  and  will  appear.  If  the 
government  is  cruel,  the  governor's  life 
is  not  safe.  If  you  tax  too  high,  the  rev- 
enue will  yield  nothing.  If  you  make  the 
criminal  code  sanguinary,  juries  will  not 
convict.  If  the  law  is  too  mild,  private 
vengeance  comes  in.  If  the  government  is 
a  terrific  democracy,  the  pressure  is  re- 
sisted by  an  overcharge  of  energy  in  the 
165 


THE   INFLUENCE  OF  JOY 

eiti/en,  and  the  life  glows  with  a  fir 
flame.  The  true  life  and  satisfactions 
of  man  seem  to  elude  the  utmost  rigours 
or  felicities  of  condition,  and  to  establish 
themselves  with  great  indifferency  under 
all  varieties  of  circumstance."  [EMERSON  : 
"  Compensation."] 

The  indolent  person  loses  out  of  his  one 
short  succession  of  years  the  truest  and  most 
reliable  kind  of  happiness,  namely,  that 
which  is  inherent  in,  and  proportionately 
part  of  the  life  process  itself.  The  idler 
misses  the  flower  of  his  ever  passing 
days. 

As  we  have  striven  to  comprehend,  the 
category  Life  is  comprised  of  complex 
processes  of  reaction  and  of  adaptation 
that  are  pleasant,  and  also  of  an  immanent 
agreeableness  which  involves  the  activity 
of  the  entire  personality.  Thus  is  that 
which  we  have,  for  convenience,  termed  joy, 
an  obligation,  and  when  the  activity  in- 
volved is  normal,  it  is  also  a  necessity  be- 
160 


WORK  AND  PLAY 

cause  inseparable  properly  from  the  active 
life  itself. 

Although  by  no  means  exhaustive,  the 
terms  work  and  play  include  perhaps  most 
of  the  personal  activities,  although  it  is 
obvious  that  there  are  many  occupations 
which  are  one  of  these  as  much  as  the 
other,  and  strictly,  therefore,  neither  of 
them.  This  is  as  it  should  be  on  physi- 
ologic grounds,  since  the  distinction  be- 
tween work  and  play  is  wholly  secondary, 
dependent  on  criteria  extra-physiologic  and 
for  the  most  part  psychological  or  still  more 
arbitrary  and  personal.  One  recalls,  of 
course,  what  is  perhaps  the  most  familiar 
fictional  example  of  this  easy  transition,  in 
the  fence-whitewashing  of  Clemens's  "Tom 
Sawyer",  drudgery  converted  not  only  into 
work,  but  into  frank  and  conscious  play. 
We  need  not  then  attempt  to  separate  work 
and  play ;  for  our  purpose,  it  is  enough  to 
think  of  both  of  them  as  forms  of  activity, 
of  the  contrary  of  indolence.  As  such, 
167 


THE   INFLUENCE  OF  JOY 

with  restrictions,  each  is  a  delight,  and  one 
to  which  normal  living  sets  no  limitations 
other  than  those  which  put  an  end  to  the 
normal  life  itself. 

Despite  R.  C.  Cabot's  assertion1  that 
"there  is  an  instinct  too  against  the 
vivisection  of  this  fragile  element  -joy- 
from  out  the  tissue  of  working  life",  we 
must  try,  but  very  briefly,  to  analyze  a 
little  the  factors  concerned.  But  first  we 
must  enter  a  disclaimer  against  this  con- 
cept of  joy  as  a  "fragile"  thing  in  our 
lives,  something  too  subtle  to  be  safely 
handled.  Quite  on  the  contrary,  the 
satisfactions  of  work  stand  the  severe 
common  handling  of  a  world  of  rough  and 
common  folk,  and  removed  for  a  time  by 
toil,  excessive  or  ill-fitted  work,  or  by  a 
period  of  indolence  outlasting  the  need  of 
rest,  it  recun  and  leads  back  the  man  or 

1  K.  C.  Cabot,  "What  Men  Live  By  ".  Boston  and  New  York, 
1914.  Readable  essays  on  Work.  Play,  Love,  and  Worship  1>\ 
a  wise  physician  to  whom  people  have  to  listen,  so  human  is  the 

168 


WORK  AND  PLAY 

woman  of  average  sense  to  the  work  in 
which  there  is  satisfaction  merging  into 
joy  which  does  not  fail.  This  fact  re- 
mains, despite  the  all  too  obvious  cer- 
tainty that  much  of  the  world's  work 
still  is  toil  or  drudgery.  It  shouts  loudly 
and  incessantly  to  the  "lords  and  masters 
of  the  world"  to  use  their  science  and  their 
mastership  to  adapt  the  work  or,  when 
below  the  adaptable  grade,  to  perform  it  as 
soon  as  may  be  with  machinery.  It  were 
a  shame  to  designate  as  work,  which  is 
the  normal  expenditure  of  personal  energy, 
that  drudgery  or  toil  which  Millet  has 
drawn  and  Markham  made  horrific : 

"  Down  all  the  stretch  of  Hejl  to  its  last  gulf 
There  is  no  shape  more  terrible  than  this  — 
More  tongued  with  censure  of  the  world's  blind 

greed — 

More  filled  with  signs  and  portents  for  the  soul  — 
More  fraught  with  menace  to  the  universe." 

Yet  no  one  is  blamable,  "censure"  is  due 

to  none,  and  the  signs  and  portents   and 

169 


TIIK    INFLUENCE  OF  JOY 

menace  will  gradually  lose  themselves  in 
the  ever-progressive  melioration  of  an 
evolving  world.  Let  us  join  once  more 
with  President  Bartlett's  far-  and  loi 
famed  Dartmouth  "slogan",  "O,  hasten 
the  day!"  But  let  us  remember  mean- 
while the  surprising  paradox  between  our 
meager  life-span  (although  all  we  have) 
and  the  time  which  the  development  of  a 
planet  inevitably  takes.  Then  we  will 
not  be  impatient,  or  get  excited,  or  forget 
the  basal  optimism  which  underlies  t 
normal  activity  of  every  mortal  born. 
"Nature  will  not  have  us  fret  and  fume. 
.  .  .  When  we  come  out  of  the  caucus, 
or  the  bank,  or  the  Abolition  convention, 
or  the  Temperance  meeting,  or  the  Tran- 
scendental club,  into  the  fields  and  woods, 
she  says  to  us,  'So  hot?  my  little  sir.' ' 
And  this  heat  is  the  wholly  unwarranted 
egotism  of  a  soul  outsoaring  its  mortality. 
For  our  purpose  then,  and  properly 
everywhere,  work  and  play  mean  the 

170 


WORK  AND  PLAY 

systematic  expenditure  of  a  not  excessive 
amount  of  the  energy  of  mind  and  body 
(empirical  in  several  forms,  but  probably 
aspects  of  one  Essence  which  perhaps  does 
not  appear)  in  ways  suited  more  or  less 
closely  to  the  individual.  Monographs  of 
description  of  this  expenditure  and  of 
this  energy  might  almost  be  condensed 
into  the  little  proposition :  The  energetic 
living  of  life  in  its  human  fullness,  vegeta- 
tive as  well  as  voluntary.  This  living 
gives  joy  above  every  other  persistent 
procedure. 

Some  for  therapeutic  purposes  and  others 
for  dogmatic  reasons  have  urged  that  this 
living  must  be  as  objective  as  possible  with 
a  minimum  of  self-consciousness.  While 
emphasizing  the  entire  necessity  of  this 
in  therapeutic  practice,  where  hysterical 
egotism  or  neurasthenic  hypochondria  are 
almost  universal,  still  there  should  be  a 
limit.  One  is  happier,  in  greater  enjoy- 
ment, when  he  realizes  that  he  is  so,  and 
171 


THI;  IMU  I:\CK  OF  JOY 

thi>  fact  is  of  no  small  practical  importance. 
Its  explanation  is  psychologically  as  .simple 
as  it  is  sound:  the  fundamental  principle 
of  contrast;  the  same  water  feels  dis- 
tinctly warm  or  plainly  cold  to  the  same 
hand  according  to  the  latter's  immedi- 
ately preceding  temperature-experie nee. 
This  physiologic  influence,  probably  basal 
in  the  train's  action,  is  reenforced  by  the 
powerful  suggestion  of  enjoyment. 

It  is  this  same  means,  suggestion,  plus 
the  additional  or  multiplied  activity  ob- 
tained, that  makes  continual  association 
with  young  folk  or  even  with  children 
the  important  instrument  of  rejuvenation 
to  people  at  middle  life  or  beyond  that 
which  it  obviously  is.  Here  again  the 
strange  false  "dignity"  and  false  pride 
(which  in  reality  is  but  vanity)  of  many 
grown  people  have  come  in  to  injure  the 
reputation  of  a  wholly  estimable  practice. 
\\  ho  would  be  bold  enough  to  say,  how- 
ever, that  the  occupations  of  the  child,  his 

IT* 


WORK  AND  PLAY 

busy-ness  or  his  play,  are  in  general  of  less 
account  than  the  occupations  of  an  adult? 
And  assuredly  no  means  is  at  hand  for 
more  certainly  "keeping  young"  than  by 
systematic  participation  in  the  joyousness 
and  in  the  physical  activities  of  the  youthful. 
To  do  this  one  by  no  means  needs  to  make 
a  fool  of  himself  (in  sooth  is  "no  fool  like 
an  old  fool")  by  pretending  powers  that 
are  no  longer  present;  but  rather  is  it  the 
mental  attitude  of  sympathy  and  sugges- 
tion which  counts  most.  "All  things  in 
proportion"  certainly,  but  long  and  happy 
life  demands  inevitably,  both  mentally 
and  physically,  the  juvenescence  of  general 
joyous  activity. 


173 


CHAPTER  VII 

Worry  and  the  Glory  of  the  World 

IN   the  slang  sentiment   of   the  day,  - 
Some  one's  always  taking  the  joy  out 
of  life !     At  times  it  may  be  the  ego!  is- 
tic  and  thoughtless  neighbor,  but  the  world 
around  and  every  day  that  "some  one" 
is  no  less  a  personification  than  Worry  the 
Fiend.     He  is  the  typical  "antijoy";  from 
every  point  of  view,  this  kill-joy,  the  Satan 
of  our  day  as  of  no  other,  stands  for  both, 
the  logical  opposite  and  the  practical,  ptM  -i- 
tent  enemy  and  destroyer  of  happiness.     If 
we  would  define  in  our  minds  the  contrary 
of  joy,  it  is  expedient  so  to  consider  worry. 
From  a  recent  booklet  *  it  may  not  be 

1G.  V.  N.  Dearborn.  "Nerve- Waste",  Health-Education 
League  Booklet  No.  37,  Boston,  2d  ed.,  1914.  This  Series,  written 
mostly  by  medical  fptntKftt,  has  much  popular  appeal  for  the 
preservation  of  health. 

174 


WORRY  AND  THE  GLORY  OF  THE  WORLD 

amiss  to  repeat  the  present  writer's  general 
views  about  this  important  actual  factor 
of  our  lives : 

Pre-eminently  notorious  among  the 
common  modes  of  nerve  extravagance 
and  waste  is  worry.  This  is  the  sheerest 
wastefulness  in  all  our  lives  —  expendi- 
ture with  nothing  and  worse  than  nothing 
in  return.  Worry  is  the  very  stock-gam- 
bling of  extravagance  in  vital  forces  with- 
out possibility  of  a  "bull  market"  or  a 
"bear  market"  to  recoup  in,  —  dice-throw- 
ing with  the  dice  loaded  always  against  you. 
In  the  terms  of  our  discussion,  every  hour 
spent  in  worrying  about  some  evil,  whether 
real  or  imaginary,  is  a  large  and  wholly 
needless  check  drawn  on  your  bank  bal- 
ance of  bodily  and  mental  strength.  If 
one  borrow  trouble,  the  rate  of  interest 
that  one  has  to  pay  is  rank  usury. 

We  may  define  worry  as  the  habit  of 
wasting  the  soul  and  the  body  on  evils  that 
have  not  come.  Many  of  its  victims  might 
175 


TIIK    INFLUENCE  OF   .|nY 

properly  define  it  in  the  same  terms  thai 
General  Sherman  used  in  regard  to  war,  - 
hrief,  but  at  once  philosophic  and  expres- 
sive. James  Russell  Lowell  never  wrote 
anything  more  true  than  his  statement 
that  "the  misfortunes  hardest  to  bear  are 
those  that  never  come,"  for  the  human  im- 
a.uination  running  riot  is  very  apt  to  make 
things  seem  worse  than  kindly  Nature  often 
allows  them  actually  to  be. 

Worry  is  described  by  the  physiolo- 
gists as  essentially  a  form  of  more  or 
chronic  fear,  —  fear  that  something  evil 
is  going  to  happen.  Fear,  of  course,  does 
not  well  become  the  strong  man  or  woman ; 
although,  as  every  one  who  is  grown  up 
knows  too  well,  some  worries  cannot  be 
avoided  in  this  troubled  life  (fear  of  the 
illness  and  death  of  friends,  for  example). 
These  must  be  met  as  is  fitting  to  the 
brave. 

Since  the  valuable  physiologic  work  of 
Austin   and   Sloan   on   the   nerve   cells   of 
176 


WORRY  AND  THE  GLORY  OF  THE  WORLD 

rabbits,  we  know  the  actual  effects  which 
fear  produces  in  the  nervous  systems  of 
animals,  and  we  know  that  the  effect  is 
very  serious  and  widespread  in  the  body. 
Worry  must  produce  this  same  effect, 
and  often  to  a  greater  degree  even  than  a 
period  of  terror,  which  of  necessity  can 
last  but  a  short  time,  so  exhausting  is  it 
to  the  brain. 

Such  facts  (and  they  are  really  facts) 
ought  to  be  more  preventive  of  extrav- 
agance in  worry  .than  any  sort  of  mere 
logic  would  be.  The  ordinary  anti-worry 
argument  of  course  reads :  If  what  you 
worry  about  can  be  prevented  or  cured, 
prevent  or  cure  it  rather  than  suffer  so ; 
if  it  cannot  be  cured  or  prevented,  why 
waste  energy  and  time  suffering  because  of 
it?  Excellent  logic,  certainly,  but  woe- 
fully imcompetent,  as  most  of  us  well 
know,  to  restore  the  wasting  brain  cells, 
or  to  abolish  unaided  this  worst  of  bad 
habits. 

177 


THE   INFLUENCE  OF  JOY 

The  reason  why  so  few  worriers  adopt 
the  frequently  expressed  advice  not  to 
worry  is  that  worry  has  the  emotional  basis 
just  now  suggested,  that  it  is  a,  feeling,  with 
a  tremendous  motive  power  behind  and 
beneath  it,  hard  to  be  controlled.  We 
need  not  pause  to  describe  in  detail  the 
physical  and  mental  effects  and  conditions 
of  fear  and  worry;  suffice  it  to  say  that 
its  depressing  influence  arises  and  is  felt 
in  well-nigh  every  portion  of  the  body,  — 
bowels,  stomach,  heart,  blood  vessels,  lungs, 
brain,  muscles  and  nerves,  —  and  therefore 
unfits  its  victim  for  every  free  and  useful 

ad. 

The  motive  power  of  much  of  our 
human  activity  is  emotion  or  feeling,  and 
those  emotional  states  that  depress  the 
nerve  centers  tend  to  paralyze  action, 
lessening  at  the  same  time  our  desire  to 
do  things,  and  our  power  of  doing  them 
well  when  we  try. 

Here  it  is  that  happiness  comes  into  the 
178 


WORRY  AND  THE  GLORY  OF  THE  WORLD 

matter.  Multitudes  of  men  and  women 
learn  sooner  or  later  that  not  always,  by 
any  means,  as  we  have  often  heard,  is 
the  race  to  the  swift,  or  the  battle  to 
the  strong;  often,  very  often  indeed,  one 
inclines  to  think  that  both  go  to  the  happy, 
—  lords  of  the  world. 

Saleeby  puts  it  well,  although  perhaps 
too  strongly,  when  he  says:  "There  is  no 
human  end  but  happiness,  high  or  low.  Its 
one  absolute  negation  is  neither  poverty 
nor  ill  health,  nor  material  failure,  nor  yet 
starvation  —  'he  that  is  of  a  merry  heart 
hath  a  continual  feast/  The  one  abso- 
lute negation  of  happiness  is  worry  or 
discontent.  A  prosperous  society,  con- 
sisting of  strenuous  worried  business  men, 
who  have  no  time  to  play  with  their 
children,  or  listen  to  great  music,  or  gaze 
upon  the  noble  face  of  the  sky,  or  com- 
mune with  the  soul  .  .  .  such  a  society 
may  be  as  efficient  as  a  beehive,  as  large 
as  London,  and  as  wealthy,  but  it  stul- 
179 


Till-:    INFI-I  KNCE   OF  JOY 

tifies  its  own  ends,  and  it  would  be 
better  not  at  all." 

Not  only  work,  but  rest,  likewise,  is 
really  efficient  only  when  the  soul  is  care- 
free ;  this  freedom  from  worry,  as  Saleeby 
has  so  importantly  pointed  out,  is  the  very 
essence  and  the  quintessence  of  every  real 
holiday.  There  is,  too,  a  fine  philosophy 
that  makes  of  the  hard-worked  life  a  holi- 
day, that  refuses  to  be  worried  whatever 
come,  trusting,  with  Tennyson,  that  "all 
is  well/' 

But  it  is  not  only  work  and  rest  alone 
that  are  interfered  with  by  the  bad  habit 
of  worrying  —  it  disturbs  also  some  of 
the  most  fundamental  conditions  of  good 
health.  No  mental  circumstance  so  de- 
cidedly harms  digestion  and  assimilation, 
or  causes  so  commonly  the  nervous 
dyspeptic  habit.  TliU  in  itself  mean>  a 
large  group  of  harmful  influences,  little 
short  of  actual  disease.  Here  we  have 
one  of  the  *  vicious  circles'  the  doctors 
180 


WORRY  AND  THE  GLORY  OF  THE  WORLD 

talk  about,  —  worry  impairs  digestion, 
which  in  turn  leads  to  more  worry  through 
the  injury  to  the  delicate  structures  of 
the  brain  and  nerves. 

This  general  condition  more  than  any- 
thing else  is  the  cause  frequently  of  the 
premature  loss  of  beauty  in  women  and 
of  youthfulness  in  men,  for  both  men  and 
women  age  rapidly  and  become  wrinkled 
betimes  when  unhappiness  and  the  dys- 
pepsia of  hurry  and  worry  are  the  demons 
of  their  passing  days.  Insomnia,  also, 
accounts  for  some  of  this,  and,  as  we  have 
already  pointed  out,  worry  is  one  of  in- 
somnia's most  frequent  causes. 

Worry  is  distinctly  a  matter  of  habit, 
and  one  which,  like  most  bad  habits,  is 
far  more  easily  acquired  than  abandoned. 
It  is  largely  a  matter  of  will-power  whether 
it  be  allowed  to  take  possession  of  the 
individual,  body  and  soul,  or  not. 

The  causes  of  our  worry  are  often 
more  purely  physical  than  we  suppose. 
181 


THE  INFLUENCE  OF  JOY 

Mind  and  body  are  in  the  closest  relation 
to  each  other,  and,  strangely  enough,  some- 
times conditions  which  seem  to  us  to  be 
purely  mental,  and  perhaps  even  beyond 
our  control,  so  that  we  worry  about  them, 
turn  out,  like  our  other  depressed  moods, 
to  be  based  on  simple  physiological  de- 
rangements, temporary,  and  easily  cur- 
able. A  brisk  walk  in  the  open  air,  a  vi-il 
to  a  vigorous  and  jovial  friend,  even  a 
cathartic,  frequently  sweeps  the  worri- 
some cobwebs  out  of  a  troubled  mind. 

We  cannot  afford  to  forget  this  thor- 
oughgoing interdependence  of  our  bodies 
and  our  minds,  for  it  will  often  lead  us 
into  simple  but  substantial  habits  of  good 
hygiene,  wholly  incompatible  with  the 
persistence  of  many  of  the  trivial  worries 
in  our  souls.  If  genius  be,  as  has  been 
said,  in  part  "an  infinite  capacity  for  tak- 
ing pains  ",  let  us  all  be  geniuses  (and  so 
happier  than  most)  in  taking  care  that 
needless  petty  worries  do  not  spoil  any  of 
182 


WORRY  AND  THE  GLORY  OF  THE  WORLD 

our  rapidly  passing  days  or  hours !  No  one 
can  afford  this  habit,  for  it  costs  too  much 
of  our  life. 

We  are  now  assured  by  competent  medical 
opinion  that  it  is  by  no  means  unlikely  that 
goiter  may  originate  in  excessive  emotion, 
and  especially  from  fear.  H.  Gushing  seems 
to  believe  this  and  the  recent  work  on  the 
interrelations  of  the  ductless  glands  and  on 
their  influence  in  dynamogeny  makes  it 
likely,  for  it  is  "  a  poor  rule,"  even  in  lawless 
physiology,  "  that  will  not  work  both  ways." 

Not  less  expedient  and  certainly  no 
less  effective  than  the  consolations  and 
wisdom  of  religion  in  the  abolition  from 
our  lives  of  this  the  chief  great  kill-joy,  is 
the  Transcendentalism  of  a  previous  Ameri- 
can generation.  It  points  out  the  glory  of 
"the  majestic  world"  and  the  transcendent 
essence  which  pervades  our  lives,  and 
says  to  us,  in  substance:  How  absurd, 
then,  to  worry!  The  deep  responsibility 
of  things  that  are  not  as  we  would  have 
183 


I  UK    INFLUENCE  OF   JOY 

them  are  not  on  our  puny  shoulders ;  we 
have  enough  to  do  to  live  life  well,  whether 
it  be  in  a  palace  or  in  a  hovel.  Life  con- 
fronts us,  the  richest  of  all  the  categor 
Up  and  at  him,  and  joy  will  take  the 
place  of  fear  ! 

We  have  recently  had  from  H.  G. 
Wells l  a  striking  and,  I  believe,  new 
characterisation  of  fear  as  "a  social  in- 
stinct, worst  at  the  first  onset,  and  far 
worse  than  any  real  experience."  It  dis- 
appears when  one  is  not  "alone";  it  is 
worse  at  first  than  afterwards;  and  it  is 
far  worse  than  any  real  experience:  each 
of  these  conditions  is  of  large  practical  value 
in  the  displacement  and  replacement  of  the 
worst  form  of  fear  —  worry  —  by  happiness. 

One  often  hears  it  said  that  there  is 
more  religion  in  a  smile  to  the  living  than 
in  an  eloquent  eulogy  to  the  dead;  and 

'  H  ( ;  \YelU.  "The  Research  MagniBoent  ".  New  York,  1915. 
The  story  exemplifies  the  difference  between  joy  and  satisfuc  t  i<  >n. 
with  everybody  content  —  the  hero  with  his  stoical  satisfactions, 
the  others  with  their  pleasures. 

184 


WORRY  AND  THE  GLORY  OF  THE  WORLD 

all  can  smile,  but  few  can  eulogize.  The 
supposed  "Cherry"  in  John  Tre vena's 
recent  "Moyle  Church-Town"  says  to  the 
'Squire:  "Sir,  there  never  was  a  man  or 
woman  born  who  could  not  learn  the 
simple  task  of  knowing  happiness.  'Tis 
true  there  may  be  many  unwilling  to  learn, 
and  many  more  who  have  not  found  a 
teacher.  Sir,  if  one  man  in  a  crowd  bursts 
into  laughter,  all  the  sour  faces  will  laugh 
to  see  his  mirth;  he  who  laughs  is  the 
master.  But  if  he  should  bid  the  sour 
faces  to  laugh,  they  would  tell  him  to 
mind  his  business.  God  created  happiness 
as  an  act  of  worship  to  Himself ;  but  when 
the  Devil  also  attempted  to  create,  it 
turned  into  sorrow.  Sir,  melancholy  is 
the  worship  of  the  devil,  and  I'll  have 
none  of  it." 

Worry    and    indolence    and    (abnormal) 
fatigue  may  lead  one  for  a  time  to  sym- 
pathize   with    Christina    Rossetti    in    the 
sestet  of  one  of  her  most  beautiful  sonnets : 
185 


THi;    INFLUENCE  OF  JOY 

'  An-1  evermore  men  shall  ^o  fearfully, 

Bending  beneath  their  weight  of  heaviness ; 

And  ancient  men  shall  lie  down  wearily, 
And  strong  men  shall  rise  up  in  weariness ; 

Yea,  even  the  young  shall  answer  sighingly, 
Saying  one  to  another  :     How  vain  it  is  ! " 

This  certainly  is  a  little  masterpiece  of 
affective  beauty  expressing  an  oft-recurring 
climax  of  melancholy  emotion,  but  it  lacks, 
as  do  most  pessimistic  attitudes,  that  iinc 
agreement  with  the  best  life  philosophy,  hot  h 
practically  and  theoretically  true,  expressed 
by  Duncan  Campbell  Scott,  for  example,  in 
'a  stanza  that  seems  to  sing  itself  out  of  the 
supreme  \\  i^lom  of  the  world  : 

"  Let  your  soul  grow  a  thing  apart, 
Untroubled  by  the  restless  day, 
Sublimed  by  some  unconscious  art, 
Controlled  by  some  divine  deby. 
For  life  is  greater  than  we  think 
Who  fret  along  its  shallow  bars." 

It    is   not   a    little   surprising,    even    to 
ii    psychologist,    to    whom    many    delicate 

iaa 


WORRY  AND  THE  GLORY  OF  THE  WORLD 

causes  producing  tremendous  effects  are 
familiar,  how  subtle  this  worrisome  state 
of  mind  may  be.  It  would  be  hard  for 
one  to  state  with  a  feeling  of  certainty  why 
a  sense  and  behavior  of  hurry,  for  example, 
should  so  closely  resemble  worry  in  its  bane- 
ful influence  on  the  physiologic  functions. 
Almost  every  one,  however,  in  this  "amer- 
icanitis  "-infected  Land  of  ours  must  have 
actually  observed  this  ill  effect  at  one 
time  or  other  probably  by  an  acute  in- 
digestion within  his  very  stomach !  Re- 
duced to  its  scientific  value,  obviously  this 
hurry  is  in  reality  its  rhyme-mate  worry,  a 
half -realized  fear,  in  short,  lest  one  be  late  for 
the  something  or  other  for  which  he  is  hurry- 
ing. One  learns  an  important  physiologic 
principle  from  this  common  injurious  experi- 
ence, namely :  Life  properly  is  a  deliberate 
and  dignified  process  to  which  hurry,  that  is, 
undue  haste,  is  wholly  a  stranger. 

Let   us   learn   this   lesson   well,    for   all 
Nature  sets  us  our  example  and  serves  us 
187 


I  UK   INFLUENCE  OF  JOY 

our  sanction  for  taking  time  to  live,  thus 
in  general  living  well.  That  silly  remark, 
so  often  sententiously  propounded,  that 
it  is  better  to  wear  out  than  to  rust  out,  is 
quite  beside  the  mark,  for  the  instrument 
that  does  the  best  work  is  neither  rattly 
from  over-wear  nor  rusty  from  ill  care, 
but  full  of  keen  life  and  active  usefulness, 
running  at  its  normal  speed,  eager  to 
accomplish  that  which  it  is  intended  to 
perform  and  neither  less  nor  more.  It  is 
only  when  we  worship  false  gods  and  "pur- 
sue" happiness  too  mistakenly  that  "  even 
tlu  young  shall  answer  sighingly,  Saying 
one  to  another:  How  vain  it  is!*1  No 
one  thing  better  represents  this  vanity 
than  real  haste  or  hurry,  an  opposite 
inevitably  of  joy.  And  joy  maketh  no 
waste.  The  surest  sign  of  the  real  wisdom 
of  any  age-period  is  an  effective  realization 
that  character  and  well-living,  like  the 
Earth  itself,  were  "not  made  in  a  minute." 
The  truly  wise  youth  takes  full  time  to  live. 
188 


WORRY  AND  THE  GLORY  OF  THE  WORLD 

A  conspicuous  aspect  of  this  whole  cas- 
uistic subject  in  the  science  and  art  of  living 
well  is  the  still  neglected  matter  of  relaxation 
—  the  problem  of  literal  bodily  relaxation 
and  that  of  the  mental  form  being  psycho- 
logically probably  one.  But  a  volume  of 
physiology  alone  could  adequately  set 
this  essential  matter  forth  —  as  perhaps 
one  sometime  may.  It  is  enough  here  to 
formally  call  attention  to  the  preeminent 
importance  of  frequent  relaxation,  thus  re- 
lieving the  fatiguing  strain  on  heart  and 
brain  and  soul !  The  avidities  of  civilization 
have  far  outrun  the  powers  of  resistance 
in  man's  already  over-developed  nerves. 
Nothing  in  the  human  hygiene  of  the  near 
future  can  excel  this  matter  in  significance, 
for  underlying  is  not  only  a  whole  physiol- 
ogy and  a  whole  psychology,  but  a  whole 
philosophy  of  Life.  Professor  Patrick's  re- 
cent contribution1  to  this  literature  is  as 
novel  as  it  is  wise. 

1G.  T.  W.  Patrick,  "The  Psychology  of  Relaxation,"  Boston 
and  New  York,  1916. 

189 


THi:    INTLITACE  OF  JOY 

But  other  factors  than  worry  and  iN 
own  dismal  sister  —  hurry  —  partake  of  the 
family  nature  of  the  antijoys.  Conspic- 
uous among  these  are  envy,  hate,  and 
jealousy,  enemies  all  and  sundry  of  man- 
kind. The  first  of  these  and  the  last  are 
near  kin.  Hate  means  usually  a  narrow 
mind  quite  unable  to  put  itself  in  the  view- 
point of  the  hated  one.  It  is  clear  that  in 
all  of  these  the  depressive  and  weakening 
attitude  is  closely  allied  to  fear  and  means 
physiologically  much  the  same  thing  - 
the  exhausting  of  the  immediate  food 
material  of  the  brain  by  a  continuousness 
or  by  an  intensity  of  action,  or  by  both, 
which  they  never  were  intended  ever  to 
undergo. 

The  notices  we  read  on  either  end  of 
some  railroad  crossings  have  more  wisdom 
in  them  too  than  the  mere  information 
how  to  avoid  being  mangled  by  the  lo- 
comotive: "Stop,  look,  and  listen  \n  Stop 
your  rush  and  worry,  urged  on  by  that 
190 


WORRY  AND  THE  GLORY  OF  THE  WORLD 

reckless  (but  not  wreckless)  chauffeur, 
Thoughtlessness.  Look  at  Nature  all  about 
you,  never  for  long  unhappy;  look  into 
the  blue  dome  by  day  and  out  over  the 
starlit  sea  by  night ;  and  look  up  and  down 
the  track  of  your  life  for  the  unhappiness 
that  might  crush  you.  Listen  to  the  music 
of  the  world  and  of  the  other  spheres  and, 
in  the  silence  of  your  sleepless  nights,  to 
the  rumble  of  a  System  which  it  is  yours 
neither  to  stop  nor  to  control  save  as  you 
drive  or  refuse  to  drive  across  its  track  of. 
unhappiness. 

Worry  is  quite  incompatible  with  the 
glory  of  the  world;  but  joy  is  the  living 
index  thereof.  Well  indeed  might  we  in 
part  go  back  to  the  better  freedom  of  the 
ancient  world  which  was  not  afraid  to 
play,  as  Fracastorius  suggests: 

"  In  the  meantime  expel  them  from  thy  mind, 
Pale  fears,  sad  cares,  and  griefs  which  do  it  grind, 
Revengeful  anger,  pain,  and  discontent, 
Let  all  thy  soul  be  set  on  merriment." 


TIIK    INTLl  ENCE    nr   JOY 

Multitudes  of  men  and  women,  old  and 
young,  are  in  this  woeful  condition  of 
emotional  and  mental  slump,  so  to  say, 
without  realizing  it  I  A  child  born  and 
brought  up  in  squalor  and  indigence  and 
neglect  may  not  realize  these  all-pervading 
qualities  of  his  life  for  many  years,  perhaps 
not  until  adolescence  puts  new  ambitions 
into  his  or  her  conscious  soul.  A  per-mi 
may  become  infected  with  a  mild  and  slow 
strain  of  "la  grippe"  (most  suitable  name!) 
and  in  the  course  of  a  week  become  mi^er- 
able  while  scarcely  realizing  it  and  then 
stay  so  for  a  month,  appreciating  his  woe- 
fulness  only  some  bright  morning  when  it 
has  gone ;  then  indeed  he  realizes  how  un- 
happy and  perhaps  how  "unfit"  he  has 
been  for  weeks.  It  is  thus  sometimes  with 
the  offensive  unpleasantness  of  the  anti- 
joy  whose  avoidance  or  escape  this  little 
book  tries  its  best  to  urge.  Herein  lies  one 
of  the  book's  sanctions,  in  fact,  —  in  its 

V 

possible  use  to  many  as  a  reminder  that 
192 


WORRY  AND  THE  GLORY  OF  THE  WORLD 

they  are  not  as  happy  as  they  well  might 
be.  Examine,  then,  O  prudent  and  canny 
reader,  thy  nerves,  thy  mind,  thy  soul 
itself,  if  indeed  its  brilliancy  be  perchance 
unwarrantably  dimmed  and,  for  the  time, 
unworthy  of  its  high  privilege ! 


193 


CHAPTER  VIII 

The  Economics  of  Happiness 

THE  scientific  economics  of  joy  and 
happiness  remains  to  be  developed, 
and  our  thesis  insists  that  it  is 
developable.  In  other  terms,  joy  has  a 
valuation  (even  if  not  yet  in  figures)  in 
State  Street  on  the  bulletins  of  the  Slock 
Exchange;  in  the  concrete -and -glass 
factory  office  of  Mr.  Shoemaker;  among 
the  maids  in  your  home ;  in  the  coal  mine ; 
aboard  ship;  in  your  own  private  ac- 
re >unU  which  you  keep  to  satisfy  I  IK  in- 
come-tax collector.  Daily  joy  has  money 
value  as  well  as  soul  value  even  in  the 
manual  trades.  And  soon  some  man  (or, 
more  likely,  perhaps,  some  ingenious  woman 
economist)  will  begin  to  reduce  it  to  grades, 
to  "standardize"  it,  and  to  find  its  mean 
194 


THE  ECONOMICS  OF  HAPPINESS 

financial  value  to  all  sorts  and  conditions 
of  workers. 

There  is  an  inherent  relationship  as 
deep  as  is  conceivable  in  our  human  per- 
sonality between  the  experience  of  a  satis- 
faction which  merges  into  plain  enjoyment 
and  the  activity,  fusing  into  the  capability, 
of  the  body.  This  relationship  is  "imma- 
nent", as  the  metaphysicians  used  to  say, 
in  our  self-reliance,  in  our  pride  of  life, 
extending  through  the  gamut  from  mere 
baseless  vanity  upward  to  the  substantial 
manhood  or  womanhood  which  is  certain 
of  its  worth  and  of  its  powers.  The  keen 
and  great  thinker  Spinoza,  nearly  three 
centuries  ago  put  this  primal  relationship 
into  plain  Latin  in  three  successive  prop- 
ositions of  his  "Ethics"  (Part  III,  Prop- 
ositions LIII,  LIV,  and  LV),  translated 
by  Elwes : 

"When  the  mind  regards  itself  and  its 
own  power  of  activity,  it  feels  pleasure: 
and  that  pleasure  is  greater  in  proportion 
195 


THE  INFLUENCE  OF  JOY 

to  the  distinctness  wherewith  it  conceives 
itself  and  its  own  power  of  activity.  The 
mind  endeavours  to  conceive  only  such 
things  as  assert  its  power  of  activity. 
When  the  mind  contemplates  its  own  weak- 
ness, it  feels  pain  thereat/' 

This  emphasizes  one  side:  that  we  take 
delight  in  our  capability  and  vice  versa; 
the  other  side,  that  our  powers  increase 
with  the  agreeableness  of  the  process,  it 
has  taken  a  busy  scientific  century  to 
demonstrate.  Let  us  turn  now  to  its 
more  practical  meaning. 

If  one  compares  the  larger  workshops  of 
to-day  with  those  of  a  few  decades  ago,  our 
sees  at  a  glance  how  much  has  been  done 
in  like  direction,  but  with  week-day  good 
health  and  productive  hygiene  as  the  guid- 
ing star  rather  than  happiness.  It  need 
not  be  suggested  that  the  two  are  close 
relatives,  daughters  both  of  the  same  sound 
and  handsome  couple,  the  Busy  Normali- 
ties. But  happiness  may  be  furthered  for 
IM 


THE  ECONOMICS  OF  HAPPINESS 

her  own  sake,  being  quite  worth  while  her- 
self as  well  as  a  complement  to  her  hygienic 
sister. 

A  glance  backward  over  the  first  chapter 
of  our  essay  suggests  fully  enough  perhaps 
why  work-a-day  joy  has  economic  status: 
it  is,  in  short,  because  happiness  is  strongly 
dynamogenic,  increasing  the  expenditure  of 
energy  in  every  kind  of  work.  Joyous 
behavior  is  more  vivacious;  and  a  happy 
girl  in  a  paper-box  factory  will  probably 
make  at  least  five  per  cent,  more  boxes 
in  a  day  than  the  same  girl  unhappy  can 
pile  up.  Moreover,  the  work  done  under 
the  stimulus  of  joy  is  not  only  faster  but 
better  in  every  way,  for  it  means  an  atten- 
tive interest  in  the  adjustments,  making 
them  more  exact. 

However  considerable  the  efficiency 
increase  in  manual  vocations,  in  those 
that  are  commonly  termed  mental  (as  if 
all  such  were  not  also  neuromuscular  as 
well!)  the  productive  advantage  is  far 
197 


HIE  INFLUENCE  OF  JOY 

urea  tor  >till.  Here  speed  becomes  usually 
of  minor  account,  the  quality  bring  of 
importance  out  of  proportion  to  the  time 
required.  And  happiness  urges  its  own 
perfection  on  what  it  helps  create.  The 
practical  result  of  this  two-phased  princi- 
ple of  creative  efficiency,  and  somewhat  in 
ratio  with  the  psychic  freedom  of  the  work, 
is  that  forms  of  art  and  philosophy  and 
notably  creative  literature  ordinarily  are 
actually  dependent  more  or  less  on  it. 
The  author,  at  a  recent  "Shop-talk"  of 
the  Boston  Authors'  Club,  made  a  little 
more  explicit  some  of  this  dependence  un- 
der the  title  "The  Author's  Sthenenplmric 
Index."  In  part  he  said  : 

In  its  details  this  close  association 
between  happiness,  or  contentment  akin 
thereto,  and  the  hi^h  ative  efficiency 

is  a  long  and  much  involved  story  with 
complex  plot  within  plot  and  incidents 
innumerable,  whose  scenario  its  Infinite 
Author  is  provokingly  slow  and  hesitant 

198 


THE  ECONOMICS  OF  HAPPINESS 

to  reveal  (on  this  particular  speck  of  the 
cosmos  at  least).  My  present  years  are 
in  part  employed  in  an  attempt  to  under- 
stand this  story  whose  practical  meaning, 
however  we  view  it,  is  so  impressive.  It 
is  just  one  little  phase  of  the  master-knot 
of  human  mystery  —  the  relations  of  the 
body  and  the  mind,  which  in  its  last  analy- 
sis reduces  to  the  structure  and  the  mode 
of  action  of  the  human  nervous  system, 
by  all  means  the  magnus  opus  of  Evolu- 
tion up  to  our  era.  The  gist  of  the  matter, 
the  grist  of  this  milling,  appears  to  be  that 
fatigue  and  pain  and  worry  and  impatience 
and  real  unpleasantness  of  every  kind 
related  to  authorship  and  other  creative 
work  are  abnormalities  which  actually 
diminish  the  speed  and  mar  the  quality 
of  our  entire  creative  efficiency.  It  is 
somewhat  as  if  the  course  and  the  rate 
of  a  trolley  car  in  our  present  wretched 
system  were  actually  impaired  by  the 
wheels'  squeak  and  the  smell  of  the  bad 
199 


Till;    INFLUENCE  OF  .JOY 

air  and  the  personal  repulsion  and  the 
jolt  and  the  whole  general  impiety  of  the 
interior  atmosphere.  And  sometimes  in 
very  sooth  these  are  so  impaired  —  as 
from  quarrels  with  the  conductor  or  by 
withdrawals  because  of  the  bad  conditions 
within.  Fatigue  and  unpleasantness  of 
every  sort  may  find  their  sanctions  in  the 
world's  last  reckoning,  for  philosophy  as 
well  as  for  religion  and  theology.  But 
so  far  as  the  definite  practical  econom 
of  a  workaday  world  is  concerned,  there  is 
little  doubt  that  for  the  most  part  organic 
happiness  makes  for  greatly  iiiereased  pro- 
ductiveness in  quality  and  in  quantity 
both. 

Be  not  misled  by  probable  personal 
memories  of  "forcing  yourself  to  do  e\ 
cellent  work  when  it  was  most  unpleasant", 
etc.,  etc.  Two  ideas  seem  especially  to 
belie  this  fallacy:  (1)  already  suggested, 
the  inexcusable  waste  of  nerve  strength 
necessary  to  force  the  association  of  ideas 
200 


THE  ECONOMICS  OF  HAPPINESS 

along  the  paths  which  for  efficiency  should 
always  be,  so  to  say,  downhill ;  (2)  even 
more  frequent,  perhaps,  a  confusion  of 
terms,  the  mistaking  and  misinterpreta- 
tion of  feelings  due  to  ennui,  atony,  lassi- 
tude, for  a  real  dysphoria  or  emotional  un- 
pleasantness underlying  the  action  of  the 
nervous  system,  in  short,  worry  and  true 
fatigue. 

In  general,  then,  these  last,  the  con- 
trary, in  short,  of  our  more  or  less  symbolic 
"joy",  seem  to  be  of  practical  economic 
importance  in  freely  creative  work.  To 
demonstrate  this  proposition,  however,  to 
set  forth  scientifically  the  details  of  this, 
the  very  heart  of  our  matter,  would  take 
us  into  technicalities  of  physiology  and 
psychology  wholly  out  of  place  here.  And 
you'll  all  be  jolly  well  content,  as  our  Eng- 
lish cousins  say,  to  avoid  the  stress  and 
strain,  and  so  merely  be  assured  that  such 
wholly  undomesticated  and  unauthorized 
creatures  as  the  cortical  nerve-cell  cyto- 
201 


THE  INFLUENCE  OF  JOY 

.  internal  secretions,  blood  pressure, 
and  numerous  like  things  underlie  what  we 
arc  slowly  learning  about  this  general 
relationship  of  unhappiness  and  unpleas- 
antness to  creative  inefficiency  or  incapac- 
ity, objectively  considered.  On  the  other 
hand,  your  own  interests  it  may  be,  as 
well  as  scientific  theory,  compel  me  to 
assure  you  that  the  practical  fact  seems 
to  be  substantially  as  I  have  said:  It  is 
better  for  your  true  'efficiency'  that  you 
should  not  do  creative  work  at  all  at  any 
given  time  than  that  you  should  do  it 
when  it  is  distinctly  an  unpleasant  task, 
that  is,  whenever  the  high  quality  be  the 
aim.  This  is  true  of  all  highly-skilled  work, 
as  Professor  W.  F.  Book  has  shown. 
Where  quality  and  progressive  efficiency 
count,  it  is  pre-eminently  true  of  (new) 
creative  work.  But  nowhere  else  certainly 
than  in  literary  work  are  materials  and 
methods  and  results  so  wholly  free,  and 
therefore  so  wholly  subject  to  the  law. 
202 


THE  ECONOMICS  OF  HAPPINESS 

Mind  and  body  are  one,  and  language  is  an 
integral  portion  of  the  human  mind,  and 
of  the  human  body  which  expresses  and 
conditions  it. 

It  is  not  only  a  matter,  however,  of 
actual  capability,  but  also  of  wasteless 
capability.  If  we  would  reach  our  highest 
and  greatest  efficiency,  do  the  best  for 
ourselves  in  the  long  run  and  struggle, 
we  must  here  as  elsewhere  consider  'safety 
first.'  To  push  too  hard  against  fatigue, 
continued  disinclination,  or  positive  un- 
pleasantness, is  to  be  wasteful  of  the  best  we 
have  or  can  have  as  creators.  And  there's 
never  any  excuse  for  waste,  anywhere, 
under  any  conditions,  but,  least  of  all,  of  a 
waste  of  our  nerve  force,  of  our  vital  energy, 
which  goes  apace  but  does  not  readily  re- 
turn. 

The  painter  and  sculptors  and  the 
musicians  long  have  realized  and  prac- 
tised this  principle  as  a  necessary  condi- 
tion of  their  best  creative  work.  Let  the 
203 


THK   INFLUENCE  OF  JOY 

painters  teach  you,  then,  their  easily- 
learned  lesson !  those  of  you  who  have  not 
already  found  this  broad  but  (for  once) 
straight  road  for  yourselves. 

When  the  different  phases  of  creative 
work  shall  have  been  studied  along  this 
general  method,  but  with  actual  experi- 
mental data  and  mathematical  result-, 
then  at  length  the  economics  of  happiness 
will  have  been,  in  part,  written.  Herbert 
Spencer,  Alexander  Bain,  Grant  Allen, 
II.  R.  Marshall,  Max  Meyer,  and  numer- 
ous others  already  have  taken  this  matter 
a  little  way  along  its  physiologic  road,  far 
beyond  Jeremy  Bentham  and  the  Utilita- 
rianism of  Mill.  But  in  spite  of  these, 
which  are  as  it  were  the  steam  engines  and 
the  electric  motors  of  transportation,  the 
true  ultimate  internal-combustion  engine 
whieh  will  carry  us  along  in  contentment 
to  the  goal  of  hedonistic  economics,  al- 
though invented,  is  yet  to  be  employed. 
Along  this  splendid  roadway  one  speeds  at 
204 


THE  ECONOMICS  OF  HAPPINESS 

will,  and  the  ride,  although  a  ride  of  joy, 
results  for  a  certainty  in  no  disaster. 

Personally,  I  have  long  firmly  believed 
that  the  ideational  side  of  mind  and  of 
human  efficiency  in  general,  the  so-called 
pure  "intelligence"  (as  if  feeling  also  were 
not  intelligent !)  has  been  far  over-rated  in 
the  world's  estimation,  in  its  philosophic 
esteem  especially,  but  to  a  less  extent  in 
the  popular  valuation,  although  the  latter 
be  in  large  part  derived  from  the  former. 
Because  of  this  disparity  with  the  scientific 
facts,  knowledge  as  distinct  from  sentiment 
has  been  greatly  over-appraised.  So  keen 
a  philosopher  of  practical  affairs  as  Huxley 
does  not  fail  to  express  in  his  surpassing 
definition  of  a  liberal  education  this  over- 
estimation  of  the  logical  efficiency  of  men 
(for  the  nonce  leaving  women  out  of  the 
consideration)  when  he  says  that  it  in- 
volves an  intellect  which  "is  a  clear,  cold, 
logical  engine,  with  all  its  parts  of  equal 
strength  and  in  smooth  working  order, 
205 


THE   IM  I  II  \(  E  OF  JOY 

ready,  like  a  steam  engine,  to  be  turned  to 
any  kind  of  work,  and  spin  the  gossamers, 
as  well  as  forge  the  anchors,  of  the  mind." 
Such  a  "logical  engine",  did  it  exist,  were 
certainly  not  worth  nearly  as  much  to 
4  the  man  on  the  street",  that  is  to  the 
traditional  "average"  man,  as  a  well- 
developed  appreciation  of  his  own  and  the 
world's  deeper  values,  those  of  the  proper 
human  relationships. 

Morton  Prince  in  his  latest  essay  l  has 
a  paragraph  which  values  these  things  more 
equitably : 

"Our  conscious  thoughts  are  much  more 
determined  by  subconscious  processes,  of 
which  we  are  unaware,  than  we  realize. 
One  great  popular  delusion  is  that  our 
minds  are  more  exact  logical  instruments 
than  they  really  are,  and  we  stand  in  awe 
of  the  minds  of  great  men,  thinking  that 

1  Morton  Prince,  "The  Psychology  of  the  Kaiser".  London, 
1915.  This  little  application  of  recent  psychology  has  more 
meaning  in  its  few  thousand  words  than  many  billions  of  dollars 
;  millions  of  men  have  so  far  been  able  to  express. 

•200 


THE  ECONOMICS  OF  HAPPINESS 

because  they  are  superior  in  certain  direc- 
tions they  are  therefore  superior  in  all 
other  directions  of  their  activities,  where 
they  claim  superiority.  Whereas,  as  a 
matter  of  fact,  a  man  may  be  eminently 
superior  in  certain  fields  of  mental  activity 
and  psychologically  a  perfect  fool-thinker 
and  fool-performer  in  other  fields.  Helm- 
holtz  said  of  the  eye  that  it  was  such  an 
imperfect  optical  instrument  that  if  an 
instrument-maker  should  send  him  an 
optical  instrument  so  badly  made,  he  would 
refuse  to  accept  it,  and  return  it  forthwith. 
He  might  have  said  the  same  thing  of  the 
human  mind.  It  is  a  very  imperfect  in- 
strument of  thought.  All  we  can  say  is 
that  it  is  the  best  we  can  get.  The  deeper 
insight  we  get  into  the  mechanism  of  the 
human  mind,  the  poorer  thing  it  appears 
as  an  instrument  of  precision." 

The  old  wisdom  of  the  race  has  expressed 
this  another  way  (through  Madame  Cor- 
nuel)  by  saying  that  no  man  is  a  hero  to 
207 


THE  INFLUENCE  OF  JOY 

his  valet.  In  other  words  intimacy  dis- 
covers mental  defects  which  are  hid  from 
mere  acquaintance  by  the  claims  of  general 
superiority.  This  deficiency  of  all-round- 
ness in  most  of  us,  and  the  consequent 
relative  superiority  of  the  inherited  feeling- 
aspect  of  human  nature,  lends  both  moral 
and  practical  support  to  our  primal  prop- 
ortion that  we  should  allow  or  force  our- 
selves to  be  influenced  by  the  instinctive 
joy  of  life.  Then  would  we  realize  that 

"Non  est  vivere  sed  valere  vita." 


208 


CHAPTER  IX 
Personality 

THE  material  which  we  have  now  pre- 
sented would  be  scarcely  worth  even 
the  planning  had  it  not  as  its  vitaliz- 
ing germ  and  spirit  something  close  to  the 
always  separate  individual,  an  intimacy  of 
meaning  and  mayhap  of  value  for  the 
striving,  unique  soul  who  appropriates  it. 
However  awful  the  present  annihilation 
of  the  individual  in  a  considerable  part  of 
the  world  may  be,  however  vivid  and  flam- 
ing and  altogether  "unbelievable"  the  ap- 
parent apotheosis  of  centralized  Right-in- 
Might,  the  Individual  remains,  in  the  long 
run  world-wide,  the  final  arbiter  and  object, 
as  he  is  always  the  locus,  of  human  life 
and  human  destiny.  To  abandon  this  at- 
titude, to  forget,  deep  in  one's  brain,  how- 
209 


THE  INFLUENCE  OF  JOY 

ever  sore  one's  heart,  this  Eternal  Individ- 
ualism, is  to  crush  by  a  single  lapse  of 
human  reason  the  whole  meaning  as  well 
as  all  the  sweetness  of  our  common  life. 

And  this  general  proposition  of  ours, 
this  doctrine  (in  a  purely  secular  sense)  is 
not  merely  a  theory,  not  merely  a  mass  of 
psychobiologic  science,  but  it  has  also, 
as  has  been  hinted,  practical  applicability, 
common  use  for  the  common  as  well  as  for 
the  uncommon  man  and  woman.  The 
educational  problem  is  one  of  method  in 
making  it  a  continuous  motive  in  the  con- 
duct of  life. 

The  difficulty  is  largely  one  of  futurity, 
so  to  say,  and  forbidding  only  because 
achievable  so  far  ahead.  It  is  the  same 
problem  that  real  education  must  meet  in 
other  respects,  all  parts  of  the  indispensable 
wisdom  of  life  or  of  living  which  the  world 
is  beginning  at  last  to  see  is  part  in  tiirn 
of  the  child's  birthright  itself.  "Eugenics" 
and  hygienic  prophylaxis  are  two  other 
210 


PERSONALITY 

obvious  factors  in  this  future  wisdom  a*  In 
how  to  live,  the  practical  psychology  at  the 
basis  of  "success."  Certainly  happiness  is 
always  a  prominent  necessary  member  of 
this  momentous  family.  At  present  the 
school  curriculum  does  not  even  show  the 
child  that  it  is  his  birthright,  let  alone  ex- 
plain to  him  how  it  may  be  secured.  Al- 
gebra and  the  elements  of  Greek  philology 
are  deemed  more  important  to  the  future 
citizen  and  father  and  brother  and  hus- 
band than  the  deep  wisdom  inherent  in 
the  joy  of  living  and  in  the  means  of  happi- 
ness of  fellow  citizens,  children,  brothers 
and  sisters,  and  wife.  In  other  words, 
civilization  is  as  yet  far  from  being  down  to 
its  bed-rock  of  human  values.  Sometimes 
it  fails  to  see  life  because  of  its  busy  concern 
with  some  of  life's  excrescences  (militarism 
is  an  example),  and  wholly  misses  the  indi- 
viduals because  of  the  crowd. 

The  joy  of  life,  then,  is  not,  so  far,  in  the 
public-school   curriculum   any   more   than 


THE  INFLUENCE  <>1    JOY 

is  the  nature  of  personality  itself.  But 
some  of  us  here  and  there  are  wondering 
how  long  the  psychologists  and  the  moral 
philosophers  are  tacitly  to  pretend  that 
what  they  know  of  Life-wisdom  is  beyond 
the  understanding  of  the  average  school- 
child.  This  notion  of  course  is  absurd. 
In  the  hurry  of  educational  discovery,  it 
has  been  overlooked  that  advanced  mathe- 
matics requires  a  special  type  of  student- 
mind,  but  that  ethics  and  psychology,  on 
the  other  hand,  do  not.  The  writer  is  one 
psychologist  who  believes  that  if  there  is 
anything  of  practical  value  in  psychology 
really  not  teachable  by  one  who  knows 
his  business  to  an  average  girl  or  boy  of 
ten  years,  that  that  part  of  the  science  is 
as  yet  not  intelligible  to  itself ;  and  essen- 
tially  the  same  attitude  is  true  in  regard  to 
ethics.  Is  it  the  history  of  the  long  war 
between  Latin  and  the  vernacular  repeating 
itself  in  a  Twentieth  Century  guise?  Is 
knowledge,  the  very  wisdom  itself  of  how 


PERSONALITY 

to  live  happily,  too  good  for  children?  If 
it  be  only  a  matter  of  pretended  abstruse- 
ness,  certainly  "knowledge"  does  not  as 
yet  know  itself. 

Whatever  be  the  educational  system's 
apology  for  this  state  of  defect  and  want, 
personality  and  how  to  attain  it,  happiness 
and  how  to  secure  and  radiate  it,  rest 
to-day  with  the  family  influence  and  in- 
struction. They  seem  to  me  to  rest 
properly  there  in  such  families  as  con- 
sciously realize  that  the  active  obligation 
exists.  Our  ancestors,  when  nomads  and 
paleolithic  cave-dwellers,  did  this  at  least 
for  their  children.  We  must  welcome 
vigorously  then  that  near-future  com- 
bination of  the  Montessoriized  outdoor 
playground  and  intensive  home  educa- 
tion that  will  properly  prepare  the  girl  and 
boy,  ideally  together,  not  only  for  rapid 
school-life  at  about  ten  years  of  age,  but  for 
Great  Life  at  every  age,  and  for  the  joy 

of  living  it. 

213 


THK    INTMTACK    OF   JOY 

Among  the  important  things  that  the 
education  of  a  somewhat  later  day  will 
surely  teach  to  every  child,  and  by  which 
every  present  adult  might  amply  profit 
now,  is  a  deeply  seated  confidence  in  the 
destiny  of  man,  at  least  "that  all  is  well." 
Part  of  this  in  practice  is  the  abolition  from 
the  mind  of  all  fear  of  death  as  something  evil 
to  be  kept  out  of  consciousness.  We  know 
now  that  here  as  elsewhere  often  "  familiarity 
breeds  contempt",  —  not  familiarity  with 
death,  observe,  but  with  the  fear  of  death, 
save  in  a  disordered  mind  prone  to  obses- 
MOII.  Hell  being  a  dead  concept  at  last, 
the  fear  of  death  which  came  from  it 
should  be  proscribed  and  banished  too. 
And  after  all,  death  is  Life's  greatest  ad- 
venture. Death  properly  is  the  climax 
of  a  lifetime  of  entertaining,  venturesome, 
chivalrous,  perhaps  reckless,  events;  and 
from  such  a  climax  no  worthy  man  or 
woman  with  red  blood  vitalizing  the  body 
and  courage  and  good  reason  inspiriting 
214 


PERSONALITY 

the  soul  need  shrink.  Sorrow  for  affection 
lost  and  gone  perhaps,  and  heartburn  for 
the  end  of  all  these  our  only  associations, 
but  never  a  word  other  than  of  com- 
placency for  the  great  adventure  of  all 
and  the  personal  solution,  at  last,  of  God's 
great  secret ! 

The  truest  personality,  as  we  have  tried 
to  show,  is  an  individual  wholesomeness 
based  on  two  mutually  complementary 
processes,  impulse  and  impulse's  restraint. 
A  personality  without  both  of  these  op- 
posed phases,  in  some  mode  or  other,  is 
unthinkable,  for  without  both,  intelligent 
activity,  its  essence,  could  not  be  carried 
out.  Of  this  activity,  joy  is  the  most 
natural  index  whenever  the  conditions  are 
biologically  normal.  It  is  partly  because 
of  grades  and  qualities  illimitable  of  ab- 
normality that  the  gladness  of  childhood 
does  not  continue  into  age  oftener  than  it 
does. 

Each  of  these  basic  phases  of  personality, 
215 


THE  INFLUENCE  OF  JOY 

actuation  and  inhibition*  the  one  VCL 
tative,  the  other  characteristically  human, 
has  its  own  type  of  joyousness,  its  own 
i -faction.  Endless  were  the  task  of 
making  these  explicit,  for  it  would  have  to 
include  every  shade  of  enjoyment  from  the 
baldest  and  crassest  hedonism,  seeking 
only  pleasure,  to  the  extremely  complicated 
satisfactions  of  the  purely  ideal  woman- 
hood and  manhood,  meeting  even  the 
requirements  of  Huxley's  well-famed  defi- 
nition of  a  liberal  education.  The  im- 
portant thing  for  us  is  that  both  of  these 
personal  phases  do  have  substantial  and 
lasting  founts  of  joy  within  their  ac- 
tivities, and  that  each  is  essential,  yes, 
indispensable,  to  the  well-rounded  life. 
Thus  by  a  law  of  selfsatisfaction-seek- 
ing,  more  certain  and  more  lasting  than  the 
orbits  of  the  stars,  the  human  individual, 
no  matter  how  far  he  may  soar  into  the 
empyrean  of  the  super-human,  is  kept  a 
mortal  with  mortal  interests  and  joys  and 
216 


PERSONALITY 

sympathies.  Without  the  inhibitory  joys, 
the  man  or  woman  is  etymologically  a 
brute,  but  without  the  vegetative,  some- 
thing that  is  worse,  because  factitious  and 
inherently  selfish,  a  secular  ascetic. 

Bliss  Carman,  in  a  book  l  of  essays  about 
which  too  little  has  been  heard,  states  the 
matter  keenly:  "The  direct  pursuit  of 
pleasure,  or  to  demand  happiness,  may 
indeed  be  futile;  but  the  instinctive  pur- 
suit of  our  activities  is  not  futile,  unless 
it  be  ill-advised;  and  from  such  pursuit, 
when  it  is  wisely  ordered,  some  essence  of 
happiness  is  inevitably  derived.  Happi- 
ness comes  to  us  not  as  a  reward  of  merit, 
but  as  a  proof  of  worth.  It  is  not  a  rec- 
ompense for  abnegation,  but  a  natural 
satisfaction  in  normal  life,  an  incalculable 
result  of  real  deserving." 

The  ideal  satisfaction  or  joy  in  the  life- 
process  would  seem  to  be  the  incense  glow 
ascending  from  a  really  human  altruism 

1  Bliss  Carman.  "The  Making  of  Personality".  Boston,  1908. 
217 


Till:    INFLUENCE   OF   .!<>Y 

based  on  a  natural  egoism,  both  of  these 
being  ample,  vigorous,  and  free. 

We  may  cordially  agree  with  sundry  the- 
orists that  gladness  as  an  effective  agent  in 
our  behavior  is  eminently  easy  of  cultiva- 
tion. Were  it  not  so,  this  book  were  of  no 
use  beyond  its  narrow  and  problematic 
scientific  interest.  As  a  matter  of  fortu- 
nate fact,  the  Master  Law  of  Habituation 
rules  in  this  as  in  all  besides.  Gladness  of 
effective  permanence  and  degree  is  not  a 
mere  theory  of  the  optimistic  morning  sun- 
shine, but  a  thoroughly  practical  and  prac- 
t  i  cable  human  attitude.  The  persistent  will 
t<>  be  glad  is  at  first  a  joy,  to  be  sure,  but 
soon  Nature  makes  of  it  a  wholesome  re- 
ligion, almost  a  worship  of  humanity  and 
thus  a  form  of  love  to  God;  and 

"  Love  that  hath  no  beginning  hath  no  end/' 


INDEX 


ABEYANCE   OF   RESTRAINT, 

47. 

Action-system,  83. 
Activity,  161  /. 
Actuation,  14. 
Adrenal,  adrenin,  44,   124, 

129 /. 
Adventure,  Life's  greatest, 

214. 
Affective      balance,      115, 

MO-/. 
Affective     tone,     23,     27, 

111  /. 
Alcohol,  154. 
Angor  animi,  see  WORRY. 
Anticipation,  77. 
Anxiety,  see  WORRY. 
Apoplexy,  103,  105. 
Arteries,  97. 
Artistry,  203. 
Asceticism,  60,  217. 
.Associations     in     nervous 

system,  76,  140. 
-Attention,  121. 

•  Automobiling,  128. 

•  Autonomic  nervous  system, 

13,  15 /. 

.  Autonomic  rhythm  of  the 
blood-pressure,  100,  103. 

•  Auto  suggestion,  134. 


BALANCE,  AFFECTIVE,  23, 
27,  111  /. 

Banquet,  42. 

"  Basis  ",  bodily,  of  feeling, 
23. 

Beauty,  107,  149,  181. 

Blood,  82. 

Blood-pressure,  99  Jf . ;  vol- 
untary control  of,  102. 

Blood-sugar,  11. 

Bodily  aspect  of  an  emo- 
tion, 9. 

Breath-holding,  102. 

CENESTHESIA,  125. 

Children,  xiv,  148,  150. 

Chromatin,  126,  154. 

Circulation,  82. 

Coffee,  154. 

Collapse,  95,  97. 

Compensation,  165  /. 

Components  of  emotion,  8. 

Conditioned  reflexes,  76, 
140. 

Congestion,  98 /. 

Constipation,  74. 

Continuous  expenditures, 
67 /. 

Control,  personal,  see  IN- 
HIBITION. 


INDIA 


Conventional     repressions, 

119Jf. 

Corpus  striatum,  124, 
Cortex     (•<•!-<  Kri,     54,     57, 

124  /.,  186  Jf. 
Cosmetic  values,  107. 

DANCE,  132. 

Death,  fear  of,  214  /. ;  from 

joy?  97. 
Depression,  unappreciated, 

192. 

Dextrose,  11 
Dietetic  wisdom,  68. 
Digestion,  78. 
"Dignity",  xiii. 
Disagrceableness,  see   UN- 


Drudgery,  169. 
Ductless  glands,  10. 
Dyspepsia,  67. 
Dysphoria,    see    UNPLEAS- 

ANTNKSS. 

ECONOMICS  OF  HAPPINESS, 

194  /. 

Eddyism,  89,  136. 
Educational  system,  211  jf. 
Emotion  and  evolution 
Emot  )  as  motivity. 

135  ;  nature  of,  4 
Emotions,  list  <>f.  1 1;>. 
Energy,  36.  122,  126. 
Knmii,  163 /. 
Enthusiasm,  123  Jf.,  142. 
Envy,  190. 
K  pit  helium,  12,  132 /. 


Epitome,  153. 

Eugenics,  210 /. 

Euphoria,  79. 

Excitement  of  an  emotion, 
8. 

Exercise,  46,  110,  128,  1,M; 
as  a  stimulant,  46 ;  phys- 
iology of,  162. 

Exhaustion,  128. 

"Expression"  of  an  emo- 
tion, 9. 

lUC      OF       NERVE       IM- 
PULSES, 26,  in. 

Factors  of  gladness,  37  Jf . 

Fad  of  blood-pressure,  100. 

Farm,  back  to  the,  110, 
128. 

Fatigue.  126  Jf.,  130. 

Fear,  174  Jf..  184. 

Feeling,  analysis  of.  7  /. ; 
components  of ,  8  jf . ;  c  1 
inance  of,  35  /. ;  nature 
of,  5,  26. 

Feelings,  list  of,  115. 

"Fletcherism",  46. 

Freedom  from  care,  43. 

Freud,  139. 

M,  1?.  i->.  132 /. 
Goiter.  183. 
Good    humor,    xiii   /.,    32, 

127,  130. 
Goose-Oesh,  87. 

HABIT,  89,  134. 
Happiness,  5,  156,  159. 


INDEX 


Happiness-mechanism,  89. 
Hate,  190. 
Heart,  82,  85  /. 
Holiday,  42,  48. 
Home-education,         inten- 
sive, 151. 
Hormones,  10  /. 
Humanness,  49. 
Hurry,  66,  187 /. 
Hypochondria,  88. 

IDEAS,  NEUROLOGY  OF,  92. 

Imprecision  of  the  mind, 
207. 

Impulse,  14. 

Indigestion,  63/.,  69,  73. 

Individuality,  61, 137, 209  /. 

Indolence,  159 /.,  163 /. 

Inhibition,  21,  33,  49,  51, 
53/.,  60,  63,  119. 

Innervations,   120. 

Insomnia,  181. 

Instinct,  26. 

Integration,  83 ;  of  the  ali- 
mentary canal,  78  Jf. 

Intellectualism,  35,  205. 

Internal  secretions,  10  /. 

JAMES-LANGE-SERGI  theory 
of  emotion,  11,  29. 

Jealousy,  190. 

Joy-factors,  37  jf. 

Joy,  necessity  of,  157; 
power  of,  1. 

KAISER,  THE  PSYCHOLOGY 
OF  THE,  206. 


Kinesthesia,     18,    20,    54, 

125,  132. 
King  of  the  senses,  kines- 

thesia,  19. 

Kiss,  imaginary,  101. 
Knowledge  of  self,  84. 
Koliones,  10 /. 

LlST  OF  FEELINGS  AND  EMO- 
TIONS, 115. 
Life,  94. 
Liver,  40. 

Living  backwards,  149. 
Love-life,  143. 
Lucretia  Davidson,  96. 

MECHANISM  OF  EFFI- 
CIENCY, 84. 

Medical  psychology,  35. 

Meeting-place  of  gladness 
and  activity,  126. 

Melancholy,  70  jf.,  186. 

Melioration,  61. 

Mental  aspect  of  an  emo- 
tion, 8. 

Metabolic  planes  of  effi- 
ciency, 162. 

Mind,  general  meaning  of, 
4. 

Mirth,  xiv,  106. 

Motion,  essence  of  body- 
life,  19. 

Motives,  motivity,  36. 

Movement-sense,  18,  54, 
132. 

Muscle,  fatigue  of,  127; 
vegetative  or  smooth,  12. 


INDEX 


Music,  131  /. 

Myth.  Wundtian,  122. 


NECESSITY  OF  JOT,  157. 
Nerve-waste,  174,  203. 
Nervous  system,  111,  KM*. 
Neurasthenia,  73  /. 
Nutrition,  41. 

OBJECT  OF  AN  EMOTIO 
Obligation  to  activity,  159, 

161. 

Ol<l-age,  loneliness  in,  148. 
"One  thing  at  a  time  —  ," 

:><;. 

Organic  happiness,  see  JOT. 
Original  nature  of  man,  17. 

PAIN,  111.  U6/. 
Paris,  siege  of,  108. 
Passivity,  129. 
IWvislmrss.  81. 
Persistence,  141. 
Personal  control,  14. 
Personality,  50  /.,  61,  137, 

209  /.;  see  also  SOUL. 
Physiology,    a    birthright, 

84;  of  exercise,  162. 
Planes  of  efficiency,  162. 
Play,  159. 
Pleasantness  and   unpleas- 

antness. Ill  /. 
Pleasure  and  pain.  111. 
Pneumogastric  nerve,  86. 
Posture,  30  /. 
Pressure     of     the    blood, 

99  /. 


Pseudo-mii-  1-1. 
Psychasthenia,  72. 
Psychology,  2 12  /.,  medical, 

8$. 
Pulse-rate,  92. 

REALIZATION  OF  HAPPINESS, 
171 /. 

Reflexes,  conditioned,  76. 

Rejuvenation,  48,  1  H , 
148  /.,  172  /. 

Relaxation,  102,  155,  189. 

Repression,  see  INHIBI- 
TION. 

Rest,  130,  180. 

Restraint,  see  INHIBITION. 

Revolution,  the,  and  apo- 
plexy, 103. 

Rhythm,  joy  in,  131. 

SAFETT-VALVE   ACTION   OF 
THE   NERYE-CELLS,    127. 
Satisfaction,  27,  146. 
Secretions,  133. 

7. 


Seep,  128 /. 
Soul,  4,  22,  48. 

Stheneuphorir    index,    107, 

IHi.  198 /. 
Stimulants,  128,  154. 
"Stop,   look,   and    list. -n." 

190 /. 

"Strains",  10. 
Stream  of  mind.    \2\  f. 
Subconsciousness,  134,  IK). 
Sugar,  11,  44 /. 
Suggestion,  90/.,  134  /.;  a 

theory  of,  139. 


INDEX 


TEA,  154. 

Thalamus,  optic,  124  ff. 
Tone  of  an  emotion,  8,  23  Jf. 
Tonus,  muscular,  83,  86. 

UNCERTAINTY  OF  BLOOD- 
PRESSURE  MEASURE- 
MENTS, 100. 

Universality  of  movement, 
28. 

Unpleasantness,  58  ff.,  74. 

Use-congestion,  98. 

VAGUS  NERVE,  86. 
Vasomotion,  98 /. 
Vegetarianism,  129/. 


Vegetative  mechanism,  H, 

50. 

Vicious  circle,  75,  180. 
Villi's  movements,  79. 
Vives,  106. 
Voluntary  action,  57. 

WAR,  103  ff . 

Waste  of  nerve-energy,  68, 

174,  203. 

Will  to  be  glad,  218. 
Wisdom  of  life,  210 /. 
Work  and  play,  159,  165. 

170. 

Worry,  102,   105,  174  ff. 
"Wundtian  myth",  122. 


223 


— 

OF  25  CES 

WILL  BE  ASSESSED  FOR  FAILURE  TO  RETURN 
THIS  BOOK  ON  THE  DATE  DUE.  THE  PENALTY 
WILL  INCREASE  TO  5O  CENTS  ON  THE  FOURTH 
DAY  AND  TO  fl.OO  ON  THE  SEVENTH  DAY 
OVERDUE. 

PCD    15   1933      ,    — — 


-**M935 


8    1937 

IMr,  52DP 


100m-8,'34 


704 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  UBRARY 


